A wasted pulpit: Laura Bush

For eight years she commanded the rostrum. Or could have. But did not.

For eight years she could have visited classrooms, read to children, visited school libraries, drawn enormous attention wherever she went to the plight of reading among schoolchildren in this county, but she did not. Consider the press she would have attracted to the sad condition of thousands of school libraries!

But she did not. Why not?

It's too late now, Laura Bush. You, a librarian, who I imagine knows something about the poor performances of our children compared to those in other nations.

You whose husband shepherded the ill-fated No Child Left Behind to its certain death.

You wasted your pulpit! You gave up eight years to be a doormat and do absolutely nothing. Do you want your daughters to grow up to be like you?

Your chance is gone to help children read better, to show their parents how they could have read to their children for just ten minutes a day. You could have been a role model for mothers everywhere.

Michelle Obama is different from you, and I have not one shred of doubt that she will use the pulpit firmly planted in front of her, unlike you.