Jill Biden sees teachable moment in the depths of a pandemic

One mother talked about the “bumpy patches” of online learning and said reopening “has been so to the T” that she doesn't worry about her son and daughter. Another mom said the district included parent input and she was comfortable her children were in a “safe environment.” 

A teacher herself, Biden praised the small circle of parents, teachers and administrators for working together to help reopen Fort LeBoeuf. And she repeated a message she had delivered earlier that day while visiting Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in Meriden, Connecticut. 

“We've been through really tough, hard times, but I think the one good thing about educators that I love — and that includes the cafeteria workers, the bus drivers, the teachers, everyone involved — is we''ve all learned from this," Biden said of the pandemic and its emotional, social and human toll. 

“We're all going to take everything that we've learned and are going to turn it into opportunity to make things better for students as we move forward," she said. 

The first lady seems intent on turning every aspect of her new job into an opportunity, for that matter, especially anything related to her triple passions for education, fighting cancer and supporting military families. 

A few days after she became first lady, Biden told governors'' spouses during a virtual meeting at the White House that her new platform is “one that I would never let go to waste.” 

She's long been focused on education, having taught at a high school, a psychiatric hospital and community colleges for more than three decades. She's still teaching, virtually from the White House, and pining for the day she can go back to the classroom. 

Finding a cure for cancer also motivates her and President Joe Biden. 

The couple lost son Beau to brain cancer in 2015 at age 46. Her parents died of cancer, and one of her sisters had a stem cell transplant. Doctors also gave the dreaded breast cancer diagnosis to four of her girlfriends within a one-year period in the 1990s. 

The Bidens also advocate for service members and their families, an appreciation that stems from Beau Biden's service in the Delaware Army National Guard, including a deployment to Iraq. Jill Biden intends to revive a military family support program that she led with former first lady Michelle Obama when Biden's husband was President Barack Obama's vice president. 

Jill Biden quickly set her agenda as first lady by highlighting all three of her longtime causes in her first weeks. 

She has been busy with virtual meetings, teaching her community college English class, official travel, running errands in the Washington area and settling the family's dogs into the White House. Even the light blue scrunchie she wore in her hair has gone viral. 

Biden, known for springing surprises and practical jokes, also is intent on injecting some levity into things as her husband faces daunting crises: She woke him up to show him giant hearts she had displayed on the White House front lawn for Valentine's Day. 

“She's off to a fast start, and I think a very solid one,” said Myra Gutin, author of “The President's Partner: The First Lady in the Twentieth Century.” 

The first lady is also keeping a robust travel schedule despite the pandemic. 

Her first official outing was to a nonprofit community health center in Washington to highlight services for cancer patients. From there, she made a detour to personally deliver chocolate chip cookies to National Guard troops stationed at the U.S. Capitol. 

She recently traveled to Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond to tour its Massey Cancer Center, where researchers study the socioeconomic and cultural factors that contribute to disparities in cancer outcomes. 

The first lady delivered remarks Monday at the State Department's virtual International Women of Courage Awards ceremony before she was to hop on a plane to spend Tuesday and Wednesday visiting U.S. military installations in Washington state and California. 

Biden also met virtually with the leaders of teachers'' unions, the spouses of defense officials and governors, military kids and their teachers, and government cancer researchers, among others. She sent prerecorded remarks to several conferences, and taped a public service commercial with Champ and Major, the family German shepherds, urging people to wear face masks. 

Tammy Vigil, author of “Melania & Michelle: First Ladies in a New Era,” said Biden's experience as the spouse of a longtime U.S. senator and vice president was an asset that helped her quickly put together a staff. She also didn't need time to figure out the issues she wanted to focus on.