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Michelle Obama visited the Zanesville Day Nursery in Ohio today, where she got a tour of the nursery and held a roundtable on women’s issues.

During the tour, she had the opportunity to meet 3, 4, and 5 year olds and learn about how the nursery provides early childhood education to children in Zanesville.

After the tour, she held a roundtable with six local women, where they discussed work and childcare issues.

Michelle spoke about how she likes meeting with women all over the country because she enjoys talking about their common challenges and struggles.  She tells Barack about her experiences with women so that he can “continue to be accessible to folks and still connected to what’s happening on the ground.”  She said:

I’m lucky because I have this strong, informal support network.  But I’m like every other woman, except that the balancing act I’m trying to pull off is in front of the cameras. 

Education was an important issue for all the women in attendance, and they all agreed that teachers are not valued enough.  Michelle spoke about how everyone she meets is worried about the structure of public education.  She said:

Every parent feels the struggle of No Child Left Behind.  We have to work overtime to make money to pay for our kids’ college educations…So many of our star students are not getting an education because their families can’t afford it.  Many of them are going into corporate law because they’re forced to in order to pay for their degrees.

Michelle described how Barack is committed to improving public education across the country and making college affordable for everyone.

One of the attendees, Geri, asked Michelle how Barack will unite the country and help people see things from other’s points of view.  Michelle replied that Barack starts with empathy, and that his natural instinct is to try and understand where someone is coming from.  She said:

The truth is, most people aren’t on the polar opposites.  There are extremes on every issue, but the vast majority of Americans are right down the middle.  Having the opportunity to tour the nation, most folks are in the same spot when it comes to the future of the nation.  How do we start trusting each other and change the tone in this nation to a more positive tone? That’s what has dominated Barack’s conversations because shifting the tone will be the hardest thing to do.  If you can do that, the policy changes can be done.

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