Marion Student Gets Political In DC Program
By Scott Brooks
WASHINGTON – Sixteen-year-old Brent Shoemaker left behind Old Rochester Regional High School last weekend for a first-class education in federal politics.
Turns out, he was ready for the government, but the government wasn’t ready for him.
As a participant in the Presidential Classroom program, Mr. Shoemaker arrived in the nation’s capital just before Mother Nature dumped a near-record foot and a half of snow on the city. The federal government shut down through Tuesday, and Mr. Shoemaker found himself in lockdown for several days while the snow piled high outside his window.
“They would clear that in two hours in New England,” said Mr. Shoemaker, who lives in Marion.
But he rolled with it, and after a snowball fight or two on the Georgetown Conference Center balcony, he and his fellow program members got to take in some political atmosphere. During the week-long program, which brings top students from across the country to Washington for a crash course in government, the students took tours of the White House and the Capitol, heard speeches from government officials and checked out some of the city’s many memorials.
Mr. Shoemaker also played the mock stock market, toured the Hungarian embassy and hit the books, boning up on current affairs in preparation for a group presentation at the week’s end.
So what if the airport accidentally sent his luggage to Baltimore? As he says, “You do what you can do.”
“This is fun,” he said. “It’s not a punishment that I’m missing vacation.”
Much of Mr. Shoemaker’s week was spent in “caucus,” in which students broke down into small groups for the week. Each group was asked to research a topic in the news and give a report on that topic before the whole class of 175 students. To spice it up, the groups were banned from using the Internet.
Staying away from cyberspace was a challenge, Mr. Shoemaker said. He found himself poring over newspapers — lots of them — and asking plenty of questions of every government official he met.
Before the week was up, Mr. Shoemaker’s group had drafted a thick report on the United States’ conflict with North Korea. They approved of the Bush administration’s decision to handle the matter diplomatically, arguing that North Korea does pose a threat but does not require military action.
Mr. Shoemaker said he got into politics while watching TV news analysts. “I
used to disagree with everything they said,” he said. He also learned a few
things during political debates with his mother, Anne, who pits her own liberal
views against her son’s conservative leanings.
After all those debates, Mrs. Shoemaker was a little shocked to learn that her
son chose not to advocate war with North Korea.
“We had talked about this, and he was very much for the war with Iraq, very
much against North Korea,” said Mrs. Shoemaker, 49. “That surprises me. Clearly
he’s been listening to some other points of view.”
With the workday starting as early as 6 a.m., Mr. Shoemaker didn’t get much of
a vacation. But, he reasoned, he could always sleep on the flight home, and
anyway, there was a lot to do.
“I like that,” he said. “I don’t want a bunch of downtime, because I can do that at home. I didn’t come to Washington for that.”
Published in The New Bedford Standard Times, in Massachusetts.
