Greetings from the nation's capital.

It's hard to believe I've finished four weeks of work already! It was a good Friday to finish my first month here. I got a couple hours of work in early and then cabbed up to the Hill. All the Fellows had been invited to a panel discussion. It had been scheduled for a room on the Hill but changed to a nearby hotel to accommodate the 300+ people who responded! It was put on by the Alliance for Excellent Education, headed by Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia. It was titled Economic Imperative: Turning Around the Nation’s Lowest-Performing High Schools, and was just that - a discussion of the bottom 5%. You may have heard of or read the Johns Hopkins study last year that identified the 2000 high schools in the US that produce the most drop outs. They called them "drop out factories". Extra points if you know can identify the one drop out factory in OR! (go Amy!). As you might guess they talked about not only the moral imperative to help these students stay in school but presented a staggering economic argument for keeping them in school. You can check out AEE's web site for details but it was something like "if we keep the status quo and do nothing, over the next decade the cost of the drop outs (in lost wages, medicare, etc) will top 3 trillion dollars. That's trillion with a T!

It was interesting to listen to top dogs in the federal government talk about what is being done, what legislation their senator, representative or committee has proposed, what they're doing with Recovery Act $, etc. All in all it was informative to hear some of the proposed solutions and to hear concerns from the audience during Q&A. One that sticks with me was a question about unintended consequences: if efforts focus on raising the bar for ninth graders (which is where most drop outs start the down that road) and work on efforts to hold students to that higher bar, who will catch the eighth graders who cannot or will not rise to that bar? Political answers, but it was interesting to 'hear how government works'. One thing I learned is that despite prefacing one's comments with "I'll make this quick" or "I'll be brief", politicians have LONG answers. And while questions might be short and sweet, the lead up to the question is so long and convoluted that you forget they were going to ask a question!

I enjoyed the panel discussion, got to chat with some fellow Fellows about their work and traded business cards with some folks from around town.

Afterwards I had time to walk to the Ronald Reagan building to meet up with a former student of mine from CA. Pia, the girls and I were at the Kennedy Center for an open house two weeks ago and I saw a familiar face. I looked and looked and then she looked back wondering who this weirdo was looking at her until her face lit up and she asked "Are You Jonathan Davies!!?" "Lindsay, right?" And it was. (I managed to remember her name because I had her as both a bio student and later for geology. And then she was my TA.) We traded numbers and got together today for lunch. Random. And great to see her. She came here for college, graduated and spun an internship into full time work after college and is doing just fine. Yeah.

Tomorrow is the National Book Fair on the Mall. They have been setting up all the big circus-style tents all week in preparation for it. Seems like it'll be a big t0-do. We might trudge over in the afternoon to check it out.

Ah, and to answer questions, no, I haven't read Dan Brown's new book. I intend to though (now that I have time to read on the Metro!). We did, however, end up at the George Washington Masonic Temple in Alexandria. Lots of pictures of past presidents and other famous Americans who were Masons, Grand Masters and all. Interesting, but still vague. I'll keep looking.

Enjoy the weekend and I'll write more next week after a real visit to the Hill and a 4-H conference in MD.

ciao,

Jonathan