Students involved with the Cultural Arts Program in the Jericho school district had the opportunity to visit with Hillary Rodham-Clinton on Friday, March 31. The first lady made her rounds through the George A. Jackson Elementary School visiting three different classrooms.

A big event for Jericho's Television Studio class was following the press around throughout the afternoon from classroom to classroom. The eight third graders in the club shared two video cameras and taped a video documentary of the day. Theresa Marma, a substitute teacher and Dan Loeb, a student teacher from Jericho High School, assisted the students with the video process. Once Clinton knew about the video students following the press around, she joked: "Bring the real journalists up here" referring not to the many news crews which stood by, but to the students in the club.

The excited kindergarten through second grade girls in Lisa Sokol's doll house class tried to contain themselves as they anxiously awaited the arrival of the first lady. "We are going to try and conduct this class as usual," said Sokol over the noise of the giggling girls who were making furniture for their doll house.

Clinton arrived to the classroom just in time to help the students assemble the beds for their doll house. "When I was a girl I had a doll house and I used to change it all the time," Mrs. Clinton said to the girls. After asking the girls about the number of rooms their doll house has, she told them that The White House where she lives has 132 rooms - adding that she also has a much smaller house in New York.

Next, Clinton visited Keri Cox's toy factory where the students were working on making a "whirly bird," which Mrs. Clinton played with and found very fascinating.

After the students presented Mrs. Clinton with a bouquet of flowers, she read a book to the second grade children entitled The Rainbow Fish and frequently asked the students to come up and help her read. "I need some help here. You are not little kids but kids who know how to read," said Clinton.

"This was so exciting," said third grader Julie Pollak. "It is not everyday that you see Mrs. Clinton walking down the street, so it is cool and exciting."

The next class that Clinton visited was Peggy Machover's cultural arts painting studio which third through fifth graders participated in. The children, knowing that Mrs. Clinton loves the three stooges, presented her with a Three Stooges' lunch box filled with candy. As Mrs. Clinton shared the candy with the class, she admired the work of the young artists. "I am very impressed with what you are doing here," she said.

At this point in the tour, Mrs. Clinton welcomed questions from the students.

"Do you ever get any days off?" asked Ashley Fern. "Not that I remember," responded Clinton as she laughed.

"What would be the first thing that you would do to improve schools?" asked Stacy Franzman.

"That is a really good question," responded Mrs. Clinton. "I have a lot of ideas about that, but first I would like to ask the students what you would all do to improve schools."

"If I was running a high school I would have a baggage check like they have in the airports because a lot of 18-year-olds are smuggling guns, drugs, cigarettes and other stuff into school," said Stacy Franzman. "I would check their bags to make sure that there were only books in there."

"That is a great answer," Clinton said. "So many kids think it is cool to smoke and it is terrible for their health."

Students were very excited to meet the first lady. "It was really cool having Hillary Clinton here because you do not see her everyday," said fourth grader Alexandra Machover. "It was fun and exciting," said fourth grader Kathryn Pappas.

Any Jericho student in kindergarten through fifth grade can participate in Jericho's cultural arts program, which rotates each year between the elementary schools in the district.