Rep. Bishop is back in the classroom

BRIGHAM CITY — All of us need to revisit our foundations occasionally, go back and remind ourselves of who we are and what we're about.

Rep. Rob Bishop, fresh off his first year as congressman representing Utah's 1st District, is doing just that during his Christmas vacation. After Congress adjourned Dec. 8, Bishop, a Republican, is back at Box Elder High School to do what he did for 28 years before going to Washington: teach.

"Pretty stupid, huh?" he said Monday after teaching three advanced-placement government classes. "I asked if I could come back, back to my roots, and have fun again."

Under congressional rules for free-lancing, Bishop said he probably won't be able to accept payment. But there are other considerations. Life in Congress is interesting and satisfying, but it isn't fun in the same way teaching is, Bishop said.

"I think he just sincerely wanted to come back and teach for a while," Box Elder Principal Darrell Eddington said. "We miss him teaching here. I wish he'd lost" the election.

At 52, Bishop is 10 years older than Box Elder High, and the two look a lot alike — graying, sagging in places they didn't sag when they were young.

But there's more going on inside each of them than meets the eye. Bishop, after all, is one of Utah's five national legislative representatives. And Box Elder High — well, with 400 computers and multiple T-1 Internet lines, its appearance belies its modernity.

While he was convinced of Bishop's sincerity, Eddington was concerned that his teaching not become a media event. Persuaded that such things as this article would be kept to a minimum, he talked to government teacher Michelle Mund about Bishop taking over her AP classes for a few weeks, classes that Bishop himself created in his former life.

"It's the best experience I can imagine for the kids," Mund said. "He has an inside track."

Indeed, during Monday's classes on the structure of the House and Senate and notable leaders in each, Bishop liberally sprinkled his lectures — illustrated with neat, school-teacher handwriting on the white board — with personal experiences from the past year; how several congressman thought he was much older than he actually is, for example, or how hard it is for a freshman congressman to actually get any of his projects passed, or the tortuous architecture of the Rayburn Office Building.

"He's there," said student Cami Dilg, who also had Bishop for a teacher before he left. "It does make a difference."

Bishop will teach this week and part of the next before the students leave for their own Christmas break. Then he'll teach a few more times in January — between political activities — before going back to Washington.

As for what he himself has learned, Bishop said, gesturing at the white board full of notes and diagrams on the ins and outs of Congress. "It makes a whole lot more sense to me now."

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