Shaheen, Sununu do a Zoom call with Holderness 4th graders

HOLDERNESS — Expect the unexpected when fourth-graders start to ask questions.

When Michelle Jenkinson’s 15 fourth-graders got U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen on a Zoom call Tuesday, they didn’t want to know anything about the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the girls from the Holderness Central School class wanted to know what Shaheen felt like when she became the first woman elected as New Hampshire governor. Was she happy, excited or nervous.

Shaheen, who would go on to become the only woman in U.S. history to be elected as both a governor and senator, said she was very happy and very excited. She did not admit to any nervousness. Instead, she felt ready for the job.

Jenkinson normally takes her students on a field trip to the State House every year, but the coronavirus pandemic made that impossible this year.

So the students spoke instead to Shaneen and Gov. Chris Sununu via Zoom calls.

What bills is the senator most proud of?

Shaheen said she was proud of her work on behalf of conservation.

In fact, she and Sen. Maggie Hassan were co-sponsors last month of a bill to make sure money designated for U.S. National Parks was not diverted to other purposes.

One of the children asked Sununu why he wanted to be governor.

He answered that he’s not really into politics, but just loves the job. He also talked about trying to get outside with his children every day and his love of hiking, even reminiscing about his five-month through hike of the Appalachian Trail in 1998.

Lest the fourth-graders think that they can’t accomplish big things, Jenkinson reminded them and Shaheen about a group of 9 year olds from the school that once read a Scholastic Magazine article about states establishing conservation license plates to raise money to protect natural resources.

They began an effort that helped create the New Hampshire Conservation and Heritage License Plate four years later. One of the pens used in that signing is part of a display at the school.

Shaheen said she remembered the day she signed the bill into law.

Jenkinson said remote learning has been a challenge, but the young people are rising to the occasion. There have been highlights, like the times the kids introduce their classmates to one of their household pets.

“It’s not ideal, everyone would much rather be in the classroom where we can have social interactions, kids engaging with one another,” she said. “We had all hoped it would be short term.

“But we’re making the best of it and doing some amazing things such as our visitors today. We’re trying to do a nice job balancing computers with paper and pencil tasks.”

She plans a project that will remind the children that they are living through a historic time.

“One of my future project will be to have the students make a time capsule and include some of their journaling,” she said. “This is a time that is going to be in the history books.”

Shaheen said she appreciated her time with the students and thanked Jenkinson for the work she is doing.

“I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to join such an engaged group of students and answer their important questions,” she said. “Students, parents and teachers across New Hampshire have been working hard to adapt to the challenge of social distancing.

“Like so many New Hampshire teachers, she (Jenkinson) is making sure that her students get the best possible education during these very difficult times.”