[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 5903-5904]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     PRAISING THE HOUSE PAGE SCHOOL

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Madam President, I would like to now praise the pages. 
I could say good words about the Senate pages and I will. I wanted to 
especially praise the House page school--and I hope the Senate pages 
will excuse me for doing that.
  Madam President, my good friend, Alex Haley, the author of ``Roots,'' 
used to say, ``Find the good and praise it.'' Those words are engraved 
on his tombstone. When he wrote the story of Kunta Kinte, he minced no 
words in describing the terrible injustices his ancestors overcame, but 
he also acknowledged their courage and perseverance.
  Since I joined this body, I have made improving the teaching of 
American history one of my top priorities. I have noted some deeply 
disturbing statistics about students' knowledge of our past. For 
example, of all the subjects tested by the National Assessment for 
Education Progress, also known as our Nation's report card, American 
history is our children's worst subject.
  But today I am here to follow Alex Haley's advice to find the good 
and praise it. When it comes to teaching American history, some of the 
best news can be found right here on Capitol Hill.
  On January 25, the College Board announced that the House page school 
ranked first in the Nation among institutions with fewer than 500 
pupils for the percentage of the student body who achieve college-level 
mastery on the advanced placement exam in U.S. history. Twenty-one 
students, or about one-third of the school's student body, took the 
exam, and 18 received the required score of 3 or above to demonstrate 
mastery of the subject.
  A number of Senate pages also take the AP U.S. history exam. Madam 
President, 12 students in the current class of 29 in the Senate page 
school

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will take 22 different AP exams this year. Eleven will take the U.S. 
history exam. But results for the Senate pages are not collectively 
known in the same way we know them in the House, and that is because 
the Senate Page School is only half the size of the House school. 
Senate pages register for the exam under their home high school name, 
rather than as a student at the page school. But based on what she 
hears from students, Principal Kathryn Weeden believes Senate pages 
score very well, but no complete tabulation of scores is available, as 
is with the House.
  House pages attend classes in the attic of the Jefferson Building of 
the Library of Congress. They are perched atop one the largest 
collections of historical documents about our country. But location 
alone cannot account for their great success. The House Page School 
puts a strong emphasis on social studies and American history.
  Students take American history with Sebastian Hobson and Ron Weitzel, 
a House Page School teacher of 21 years who will retire this year. 
Surely, much of the credit belongs to Mr. Hobson and Mr. Weitzel. But 
students also find a focus on American history in their work with other 
teachers. On Saturdays, students participate in the Washington Seminar, 
a program that explores American Government and history here in the 
District of Columbia.
  Math teacher Barbara Bowen, who is something of an expert on 
Presidents Jefferson and Washington, takes students to Monticello and 
Mount Vernon.
  Computer and technology teacher Darryl Gonzalez takes students to 
Fort McHenry and the American History Museum.
  Science teacher Walt Cuirle includes the history of U.S. energy 
policy when he teaches his class on energy. Mr. Cuirle also takes 
students to Philadelphia for the Benjamin Franklin portion of the 
school's Washington seminar.
  Most students take English teacher Lona Klein's course on American 
literature, which has to include history as they read literature from 
the Puritans, the Enlightenment, and the slave rebellions. She also 
leads a field trip to Annapolis to see the State house and the Naval 
Academy.
  Principal Linda Miranda has made the teaching of American history a 
priority at the House Page School, and it shows. It is no wonder the 
school has received this recognition from the College Board, which 
administers the advanced placement exams across the country. Ms. 
Miranda credits the outstanding quality of the students who are 
selected as House pages and her faculty, whom she calls ``Renaissance 
men and women.''
  There is no question this has been a team effort at the House Page 
School, but I know good leadership starts at the top. So I salute Linda 
Miranda, her faculty, and the students at the House Page School. I hope 
their success may be an example to schools across the country as to how 
we can restore the teaching of American history to its rightful place 
in our schools so our children grow up learning what it means to be an 
American.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Oregon.

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