Minn. teacher's W.H. moment | POLITICO 44

Minn. teacher's W.H. moment | POLITICO 44

Barbara Stoflet is used to giving math exams to her sixth-graders, but on Monday she was given the most important timed test of her life.

Already in Washington to receive an award from President Barack Obama along with dozens of other math and science teachers, Stoflet was told by the White House press office that she had been chosen to introduce the commander in chief.

She had to write a speech. For the president. In 48 hours.

“I was just so honored,” Stoflet told POLITICO by phone, while ducking out of a meeting with Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “It came from the heart. It really just came to me.”

The teachers being honored had little time in Washington, so Stoflet had to work on an outline for her speech in a 45-minute window Monday night — an outline she would later scrap as she traded drafts with the White House over the next day. They asked her to talk about her experiences as a teacher and said she had just two minutes — just enough to “get the most out of every word,” she said.