Green honored for environmental education; Students drill Congressman Thompson

Gary Green’s seventh-grade math class at Adele Harrison Middle School had a special visitor on Monday morning – Congressman Mike Thompson. He visited the class to present Green with a 2008 Environmental Achievement Award for his many years teaching environmental science to local youth.
Green wasn’t able to attend the awards ceremony last year because he was off fighting fires in southern California as a volunteer. “I have two hats. One’s paid, one’s not,” he said with a smile.
Thompson, a resident of St. Helena who has served in Congress for over a decade, fielded questions from students on everything from the Iraq war to testing to the latest scandal involving Rod Blagojevich.
“You know, I have town hall meetings with adults and they don’t have questions this thoughtful,” said Thompson. He had nothing good to say about Blagojevich, but did suggest that the student asking the question get extra credit for his correct pronunciation of the Illinois governor’s last name.
Students also asked about the Iraq war, pirates stealing oil, Guantanamo Bay, whether U.S. forces should be redirected to Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Thompson said we never should have gone to Iraq. “It was a war of choice, not of necessity,” he said. He also expressed his support for President-elect Barack Obama and for Hillary Clinton as his secretary of state.
Green said he was concerned about the No Child Left Behind mandate that 100 percent of students be proficient in reading and math by 2014. “I think that will mean schools will be 100 percent in program improvement by 2014,” he said, adding that the high population of English-language learners in California means that goal is unrealistic for many schools.
After about a half hour of questions, Green wrapped up the event, pointing out that he needed to get back to mathematics so that his students would be prepared for their benchmark examinations this spring.