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WASHINGTON AND WAUTOMA - Congressional representation reached the fifth grade level Jan. 23 as Rep. Tom Petri fielded questions from about 20 students in a meeting coordinated by Wautoma School District teacher Pat Schmidt.
Petri frequently accepts requests to visit with students to discuss the role of U.S. representatives, but in a first, Wednesday's event took place both in a congressional office building and at Wautoma High School via video connection.
The fifth graders were well-prepared with pre-written questions such as, "How did you get to be a congressman?" "What is the difference between a congressman and a senator?" and "What is a bill?" As Petri finished each answer, each questioner invariably said, "Thank you, Congressman Petri, for answering my question."
Afterward, Petri explained that the video meeting came about because the fifth graders had written to him to express support for the Congressman's bill, H.R. 3937, the Assessment Accuracy and Improvement Act, which would allow states and localities to fulfill their testing requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act by conducting computer-assisted tests which automatically adjust to the skill level of the individual child as he is taking the test. Many educators suggest that these "adaptive" tests would be more useful than current standard tests, which are most useful for judging the skills of classes as a whole rather than of individuals.
"I've had the chance over the years to meet with students in Wisconsin, but today the House is in session," Petri said. "Video conferencing technology has improved so much that I thought I'd try this experiment in distance learning, and I think it worked rather well."
In response, Petri offered to speak with the students directly. Also, Petri's District Director, David Anderson, met with the students in Wautoma both during and after the video meeting to makes sure that everybody's questions were answered.
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