First Lady, in Solo Debut, Puts Teaching in Spotlight

Last week a homemaker with landscaping chores, Laura Bush made a belated solo debut as first lady on Thursday, telling two dozen fidgety schoolchildren she wants to use her new job to promote her old one--teaching.

“To me there’s something almost sacred about teaching,” Mrs. Bush said. “One of my goals over the next four years is to encourage more people to become teachers.”

In the middle of a four-day social whirlwind, the first lady lent her name and gave eight minutes of remarks to a city initiative that aims this year to lure 100 mid-career professionals into teaching.

It was Mrs. Bush’s first solo appearance since before her husband was sworn in on Jan. 20.

In what aides are calling her “launch,” Mrs. Bush will make a speech at a Maryland school on Monday to lay out what she hopes to make the themes of her tenure in the White House. A former second-grade teacher who holds a master’s degree in library science, Mrs. Bush is focusing on reading and teaching--in line with the president’s agenda.

“My husband is partial to teachers,” she said Thursday.

Mrs. Bush otherwise appeared as uncertain about her celebrity as did the first-graders who stared at the visitor who drew a dozen TV cameras to their library at the Patricia Roberts Harris Educational Center.

Perching lightly on her seat, Mrs. Bush gave small waves to the boys and girls.

“Watching a child’s eyes brighten with understanding is an experience that defies description, but it’s something that every teacher can understand,” she said.

For two weeks, Mrs. Bush has been out of sight tending to the Bushes’ ranch in Central Texas.

“She doesn’t seek out the spotlight, but she doesn’t shy from it, either,” said spokeswoman Noelia Rodriguez. “It’s just that she had a life before the White House and she’s going to continue to have a life, which means she wants to make not only the White House a home but make their ranch a home.”

On Wednesday night, she and the president--both of them admitted homebodies--made their debut as Washington’s premiere “A-list” couple at a three-hour dinner at the Georgetown home of Katharine Graham, former publisher of the Washington Post and the current chairwoman of the executive committee of the Washington Post Co.

Mrs. Bush has also been meeting this week with White House chefs, florists and ushers for her first grand White House dinner--a black-tie affair Sunday for the nation’s governors and country music star Lee Ann Womack.