Jill Biden heads back to classroom as a working first lady
Jill Biden is going back to her whiteboard. After months of teaching writing and English to community college students in boxes on a computer screen, the first lady resumes teaching in person Tuesday from a classroom at Northern Virginia Community College, where she has worked since 2009. She is the first lady to leave the White House and log hours at a full-time job. "
There are some things you just can't replace, and I can't wait to get back in the classroom," she recently told Good Housekeeping magazine. The first lady has been anxious to see her students in person after more than a year. of virtual teaching brought on by a pandemic that continues to challenge the Biden administration.
A working first lady is a "big deal," said Tammy Vigil, a Boston University communications professor who wrote a book about first ladies Michelle Obama and Melania Trump.The nation's early first ladies did not work outside the home, especially when home was the White House. They supported their husbands, raised children and performed the role of hostess.
Some first ladies acted as special ambassadors for their husbands. Eleanor Roosevelt was especially active, traveling around the U.S. and reporting back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose activities were limited by polio. She advocated for the poor, minorities and other disadvantaged people, and began writing a nationally syndicated newspaper column from the White House.
More recent first ladies, like Laura Bush, who was an elementary school teacher and librarian, had stopped working outside the home after having children and were not employed when their husbands were elected. Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama were working mothers who decided against continuing their careers in the White House.
