Chapter 30
“Ready?” Brian asked Julie while they were still seated in the car.
“Absolutely.” Julie opened the door and got out of the car walking toward the
park they’d selected. It included a swimming pool that was in great demand on
this beautiful summer day.
Julie began introducing herself to people, explaining that she was running for
Congress. She was dressed in a light, summer dress and sandals and fit in
perfectly with the casual crowd assembled. Brian stood back and watched it
unfold.
“She looks youthful and energetic.” Peyton noted as he joined Brian. Julie
launched into her education ideas and they saw some mothers nodding their
heads in agreement. Volunteers who’d been dispatched to the park the last
couple days had announced the coming visit and were now subtly moving
more people over to hear the conversation.
Brian had arranged to capture some video footage hoping to use some of it in
an ad so he’d been expecting one camera there, he was surprised though
when a second joined them. It was a local station probably gathering stock
footage but still…
He moved closer to hear what was being said.
“How old is your daughter?” Julie was asking a woman seated near her.
“She’s 9….there she is.” The woman pointed to a young girl who was chatting
with friends and then ran to the diving board to dive. The big splash was met
with applause and the girl, who hadn’t realized she was now the center of
attention, gave a shy smile.
“She’s a great diver!” Julie said.
“She is.” The woman said proudly.
“Yeah…you know that’s a great illustration of what I’m talking about with this
new education plan. If you had told your daughter that today, at 1:00, there
would be over 100 people here to watch her dive, how do you think she would
have done?”
“I’d be lucky to get her to dive at all.” The woman replied. “She’d be horribly
nervous.”
“But if you did get her to do it, it wouldn’t be her best dive would it?”
“No! She’d probably forget what she was supposed to do.”
“But that’s exactly what happens with these standardized tests.” Julie
explained and turned a bit to face more of the audience. “We tell these
wonderful kids with all kinds of skills, that on Monday the 12th, at 8:00 am,
armed only with a number 2 pencil, they need to fill in the bubble next to the
best answer to show us all they know. Some are anxious, some can’t stay
focused for hours at a time as the test requires, some don’t test well, and
some are too tired or sick to concentrate at that hour. We’re never going to
get an accurate picture of what they know that way.”
“I’m sorry, what’s your daughter’s name?” Julie asked the woman she’d been
conversing with.”
“Audrey.” The woman answered quietly.
“If we want to see Audrey’s best dive, we watch when it’s a normal day and she’
s comfortable; not when we’ve put her on the spot and she’s tense or tired. If
we want to know all that Audrey is capable of, we document what she’s doing
every day.”
“But how do you do that in a classroom?” Another parent asked.
“It’s called doing a portfolio on a student. The teacher, or teachers, collect
evidence of what a student like Audrey does throughout the year, to show
competency and growth. The evidence can be in the form of classroom work,
a videotape, an audio tape, a picture…there are hundreds of possibilities.”
“Then how do we know if the kids are learning everything they should?”
“That’s where the teacher comes in. Teachers go to school for years to gain
the professional knowledge they need to determine if a child is progressing
the way they should. Then they continue to learn new teaching strategies
through continuing education. Why don’t we, as a community, trust these
professionals the same way we trust other professionals; like doctors and
lawyers? These portfolios can be presented to objective members of the State
Education Department and they can determine whether the teacher is doing a
good job or not.”
“Won’t that cost a ton of money? I mean, to hire people to go around and
check all these portfolios?” A father nearby asked.
“Do you have any idea how much standardized testing costs? And it doesn’t
even give us accurate results. If we use this alternate method of assessment,
it will be cheaper than the current standardized tests, even with the need for
additional state employees for oversight, have a more accurate assessment of
our children’s skills, and have less stressed children.” Julie argued.
“My kids get sick to their stomach every time we have those tests.” One
woman added.
“My son gets migraines.” Another offered. “And every year he scores low
average on math, when he is taking math in the gifted class at school. I don’t
buy those scores for a second. It’s just not fair.” Added yet another.
“That’s why I want to go to Washington and change the way we look at this
critically important issue. Education is everything; it is the key to a flourishing
community and to personal health and happiness. We all want that for our
children and for Minnesota.”
The Q & A went on for another hour until families started packing up to go
home for the day. When Julie re-joined her team she was dripping with sweat
but bursting with excitement.
“What did you think? I thought it went well. Do you think it went well? I couldn’t
believe some of the responses from parents. Forget the teacher unions, we
need to go directly to the parents on this.” Julie rattled off.
“Slow down. Yes, it went well.” Brian agreed.
“It was superb.” Peyton stepped it up. “But you’re a mess now. You need to
cool off.”
Julie barely registered the words in her brain before she felt him push her into
the pool. She came up sputtering just as Peyton jumped in after her. Both of
them were laughing like loons.
Brian took off his sunglasses to better see the spectacle. Then he turned to
Holly. “It is stifling hot out here.” He moved closer to her.
“Oh, no, not with these shoes.” Holly protested. She kicked off her shoes and
jumped in holding Brian’s hand. Soon the volunteers had jumped in after them
and they were all splashing around like children on the first day of summer
vacation.
The caption that accompanied the photo the next day, in the local paper as
well as the Twin City paper, was “Julie Peterson and her team jump into the
deep end with education reform”. The video the second news camera had
picked up was shown across the state.
They jumped 4 points the following week.
*****************************************
“Josh, you don’t mind rooming with a Republican do you?” Donna’s question
got the desired result and Josh’s eyes popped open for the first time following
his surgery.
“Whaaat?”he asked all disoriented.
Donna offered him a straw to take a sip of water from. “Just kidding. You’ve
got a private room, but they’ll be kicking you out after a few days so don’t get
used to the peace and quiet.”
“Everything went okay?” he asked groggily.
“Everything went okay.” She confirmed and kissed his forehead. “You’re heart
is beating in perfect time. I swear I could just lie next to you and listen to it for
hours.” Donna stroked his arm up to his shoulder. “Well, maybe not JUST lie
next to you…” She hinted.
“Seven weeks?” Josh asked and it took Donna a minute to remember her
threat of seven sexless weeks. She laughed when she did.
“I can hardly keep my hands off you right now.” She told him in a confidential
whisper and saw his pulse quicken.
“Knew it was… an empty threat.” Josh showed a dimple.
“Go back to sleep. I’ll just write down all the things I intend to do to you once
you’ve recovered, so I don’t forget anything.” Donna promised.
She’d barely watched his eyes close when Toby came in.
“Toby? How’d you get in here?”
“I got clearance.” He smiled.
“From whom?”
“Donna, I hear this boy isn’t behaving himself again.”
“Dr. Bartlet?!” Donna rushed to get a hug from the woman who’d been like
another parent to her in all this.
“Donna…”
“Abby.” Donna corrected herself. “You didn’t have to come out here. The
surgery went very well.”
“That’s because I was observing.” Abby smiled. “Has he woken up at all yet?”
“Just a minute ago, and he was his normal self, so be prepared for more
Lyman wit for some time to come.” Donna smiled back.
The women saw Toby walk closer to his friend and bow his head.
When his head came back up again, Donna moved over behind him and put
her hand on his arm. “It’s not all about medical science, you know. Reminding
him of his faith and who he was named after helped too.”
Toby gave her a half smile.
“I’ll stay with him and you can go get something to eat with Dr. Bartlet.” He
offered. Donna pretended to think about it and then accepted with thanks.
When Josh resurfaced again, nearly an hour later, Toby was seated next to
him doing a crossword puzzle.
“I sent Donna and Dr. Bartlet away to get some food. You can thank me later.”
“Ah-kay.” Josh replied, still a bit groggy. “Wait a second…Dr. Bartlet..am I
dreaming?”
“You wish.” Toby set the crossword aside. “They’ll be back soon so you
should practice your fake sleeping.”
“Donna will never buy it.”
“Probably not.” Toby agreed. “She’s had a little practice. How ya’ doing?”
“I feel like I broke my ribs again.” Josh assessed. “But it’s not nearly as bad as
when I got shot.”
“There you go. A silver lining.” Toby pointed out and Josh started to laugh, but
winced in pain instead. “Dr. Bartlet said they did a little repair work on your
heart while they were putting the ICD in.”
“That was the plan.” Josh agreed. “The surgeon wanted to repair some of the
arterial damage from after the shooting. Back then, they told me they didn’t
know how well it would hold together, so they figured since they were in there
anyway…” Josh paused and his voice got softer. “I…I need this to work, Toby.
Long term survival rates for transplants? They’re...not good. Jake is 4.” Toby
could see the tears in his friend’s eyes.
“I know that.” Toby looked away to get a hold of his own emotions. “It’s…you…
are gonna be fine.”
“Then why aren’t you looking at me?” Josh asked.
Toby met his eyes and cleared his throat. “Do you have any idea how bad
people look after heart surgery? I was just giving my eyes a break.”
“How’s the patient?” Dr. Bartlet asked as she and Donna walked through the
door. Donna took in Josh’s expression and became alarmed.
“What’s wrong, Joshua?” she asked while she took his hand and felt his
forehead.
“Calm down, Donna.” Dr. Bartlet advised. “All this high tech equipment would
tell us if there was a problem. His heart is fine, so is his oxygen level and his
temperature.”
“He’s probably just upset to learn about the hospital menu. It is quite
depressing, isn’t it Joshua?” Dr. Bartlet continued giving Josh the out he
needed and time to recover from his emotions.
“Why, if these people can transplant organs, can they not figure out how to
make decent food?” Josh asked.
“Don’t worry, you’ll be on liquids for the next 24 hours anyway.” Dr. Bartlet
patted his leg. “Have you had a chance to speak with the surgeon yet, or do
you want to get the lowdown from me?”
“I’d prefer to hear it from you.” Josh concluded.
“The ICD implantation was textbook; no problems at all. The additional work
went just as well. Some of the repairs they made in your marathon surgery
after Rosslyn weren’t holding as strong as they’d like, but they were able to
make some adjustments so that your heart is now pumping better than it has
since then.”
“All good news.” Donna confirmed.
“That’s a huge relief.” Josh admitted and tiled his head back until it hit the
stack of pillows behind him. “When will they know if the ICD is working okay?”
“They’ll run some tests and continue to monitor how you’re doing both when
you’re stressed and when you’re relaxed, although I told them there was no
such thing as a relaxed Josh Lyman.” Abby joked.
“I really appreciate you coming out here, Abby.” Josh looked her in the eye to
be sure she saw the sincerity in them.
“Jed wasn’t well enough to make the trip, but he wanted me to tell you that he’
s praying for your speedy recovery.” Abby relayed.
“Tell him thanks too.” Josh requested and then yawned.
“You should sleep some more.” Abby decided.
“All I’ve been doing is resting and sleeping lately.” Josh complained.
“That’s how you recover your strength quickly.” Abby added. When you’re
able, Jed would like the Lyman Team to come out for a visit.”
“As soon as he’s able; I promise.” Donna added a kiss to the former First Lady’
s cheek to seal the deal.
************************************************
“She can’t say that.” Brian said again.
“She has to.” Billy argued.
“Okay, she WON’T say that.” Brian amended.
“Bri, this is one of those times…” Billy trailed off.
“Don’t say it, Billy.”
“Then don’t make me say it. If it were any other candidate-“
“I’ve got a raging headache right now.” Brian admitted and Billy stayed silent
for a bit.
“Do you want me to talk to her?” Billy offered quietly.
“She’s not going to kneecap Butler on this; not on this issue. And you know
what? I’m not convinced she should either.”
“That’s because you’re too close to it.”
“Are you channeling Josh right now?” Brian’s voice rose.
“Just because the way he said it was wrong, doesn’t mean what he said was
wrong.” Billy’s rose too. “You need to step back, and advocate for the
candidate not your fiancé.”
“If I SOMEHOW convince her to do this and she does it. Then tomorrow, she’ll
hate herself for it.”
“Are you worried about her hating herself or hating you?” Billy asked pointedly.
“Both.”
“You’re not closing the gap with Butler and the numbers you do have are soft.
She has to prove she can play in the major leagues. We can work on the
wording of the statement, but she needs to make it.” Billy said unequivocally.
“Call me when she gets back from the dinner.”
Brian hung up the phone and rubbed his forehead. This was going to suck.
“Mary!” He called out into the general office area.
“Yes, sir?” The 20 something college volunteer appeared at his door and
Brian had to really work to hold in the sigh.
“Mary, no ‘sirring’ me, remember?”
“Yes, sir- I mean…Yes.” Mary got nervous when she was talking to Brian. For
the life of him, Brian didn’t know why. Perhaps it was because she hailed from
the south. “Have you got the clippings I asked for?”
“Oh, yes, I just finished them!” She hurried off to get them and
unceremoniously dropped them all over Brian’s desk. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay, Mary, thanks. Would you please call Holly on her cell and let her
know I need the candidate here after the dinner is over?”
“Yes, sir…I mean, Yes, I will. Ummmm….Holly Reynolds, right?” Mary
confirmed.
“Yes, Holly Reynolds, our campaign spokesperson.” Brian added to make sure
there was no misunderstanding. Mary was a sweet kid, hardworking and
enthusiastic about getting Julie elected, but she needed a lot of hand holding.
Brian looked over the headlines from today’s papers as well as print outs from
websites that had even more recent headlines. Billy might be right, but he was
sure Julie wasn’t going to see it that way.