On Friday, the choir room became a studio for C-SPAN, a cable television network that specializes in political issues. John McGinnis’s fifth period and Josh Hertel’s seventh period government classes had planned on going to the Arlington studio in the Newseum building to attend a live taping. However, because Fairfax County won’t allow any field trips in the metropolitan area, the special guest speakers were invited to come to school.

“Students will have a chance to study the presidential decision making, and current events such as Iraq and the war on terrorism,” Hertel said, anticipating the event. Hertel organized this program, and has done this kind of event before. One of them included the focus on the Bush vs. Gore campaign.

The event featured special guest speakers Brent Scowcroft and Richard Neustadt. Scowcroft belongs to the Presidential Forum for International Policy, and Neustadt is a presidential scholar, professor Emeritus of government at Harvard University. He was the former aide to President Harry Truman and a consultant to later presidents. Both speakers both won the Peck Presidential Award, presented annually by the Smithsonian Institution.

The program progressed for about an hour and 30 minutes. The first 30 minutes were used as a rehearsal. After the taping began, the guest speakers spoke for about 15 minutes. Forty-five minutes were given for students to ask questions of the guest speakers. Senior Justin McCormick asked, “During the first Gulf War, the elite Republican Guard of the Iraqis were allowed to escape. In retrospect, do you think this decision was a mistake?” He also had many other questions written down on his paper to ask.

McCormick felt that the event “was very informative.” He said the only downfall was that the speakers still did not completely answer his and the other students’ questions sometimes.

The taping continued from 10:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. The whole taping was shown at 7 later that night on the C-SPAN channel.

The Close Up Foundation, a civic education group founded in 1970, sponsored this event. Its goal is to give teachers and students firsthand experience of government. The group brings 20,000-25,000 students all over the nation to Washington D.C. to provide these opportunities.