ASHINGTON - Melrose High is no Boston Latin, but when Elizabeth Dole needed a venue for a speech on education, she overruled advice that she pick the prestigious exam academy and insisted on middle-class Melrose's public high school instead.
For a presidential candidate who says her top priority is to raise academic standards, promote local initiative, and restore discipline and values in the nation's struggling public schools, Melrose, with its no-nonsense principal and new dress code, rules of conduct, and Saturday classes seems the perfect place to spotlight.
Just as important, Dole's visit to Melrose tomorrow is something of a sentimental journey. In 1959, Dole - then Miss Hanford of Harvard's graduate school of education - taught 11th-grade history in Melrose and got her own lesson in the strength of America's public schools.
''It was a wonderful experience for me,'' Dole said in an interview, as she recalled her time as a student teacher as a highlight of the seven years she spent living and studying in Cambridge. ''I have a real personal connection to Melrose. I've been there, taught there, and feel like it is part of my life and history.''
Dole's education speech is one of two policy addresses - the other will be on foreign affairs - she will deliver between now and mid-October, when, aides say, she will officially declare her candidacy for president. A former head of the American Red Cross and a two-time Cabinet secretary, Dole campaigned in the early-primary state of New Hampshire over the weekend and will squeeze the visit to Melrose between fund-raisers in North Carolina and New York this week.
As a teacher, Dole said, her goal was to make history ''come alive off the page'' for her students. She said her most vivid memories from 40 years ago are of finding a Buddhist monk in Harvard Square and a West Roxbury police officer who took part in the 1919 Boston police strike and bringing them into class to share their experiences.
With education ranked as the top issue today in most public-opinion polls, it's no surprise that Dole is dusting off her teacher credentials and making the most of her brief but, she says, very satisfying stint at Melrose High School. She's also using the stop in Melrose to remind voters that although she has never held elective office, her public-service career and real-life experiences qualify her to be president.
Never mind that Dole, a 1958 Duke University graduate, sought a master's degree in education primarily as a ''vocational insurance policy'' in case she couldn't get a job in Washington or find a way to use the Harvard law degree she earned years later. In her book ''Unlimited Partners,'' Dole admits she disappointed a professor who called her ''a born teacher'' because personally, ''the lure of government outstripped the satisfaction of the classroom.''
Indeed, Daniel R. Burke, the principal of Melrose High School, said he wasn't aware of the candidate's connection to Melrose until two of her aides visited his office last week and pitched the idea of making the school the site for Dole's education speech.
''They said, `Hi, we're from Elizabeth Dole's presidential campaign,' and I said, `Yeah, and I'm a tightrope walker,''' said the principal, mocking his 300-pound girth.
Burke, who came from Scituate High School in July, said he is glad to showcase Melrose because it is transforming from what he called ''Happy High'' to being a serious school with stricter academic standards, tighter discipline, and more structure. The school has 990 students; the majority are white and more than 80 percent of them go on to two-year or four-year colleges.
Unlike some of her GOP rivals, who are stressing school choice and promoting federal vouchers so parents can pay for private and religious schools, Dole's focus is on rebuilding public schools like Melrose.
Unlike her husband, former Senate majority leader Bob Dole, who made bashing teachers' unions a centerpiece of his failed GOP presidential campaign in 1996, Elizabeth Dole says she won't ''turn teachers into rhetorical punching bags.'' Dole defends teachers as ''the true heroes of our society,'' though she says many could use more training and be more accountable to students and their parents.
And unlike the GOP front-runner, Texas Governor George W. Bush, who earlier this month laid out an education policy that would transfer federal funds to parents from public schools that don't make the grade, Dole is not expected to make any sweeping or specific proposals tomorrow.
''She will emphasize four things that she is passionate about in education: more flexibility, discipline, local control, and values,'' Dole adviser said. ''She will underscore that parents must be empowered to do and demand more in the schools.''
Dole does not adhere to the 1996 Republican Party platform that calls for abolishing the US Department of Education. Instead, she wants local school districts to have more discretion over how federal money gets spent and more responsibility for earning it through improved performance.
Melrose Mayor Patrick Guerriero says education is the most serious issue in the suburbs, and Dole's message is exactly what local officials want to hear. A volunteer in Bob Dole's 1988 campaign for president, Guerriero says he invited Mrs. Dole to Melrose in this, its centennial year.
Some things have changed in Dole's 40-year absence. The 1933 building where she taught is now Melrose's middle school and is connected by two ramps to a newer high school. The president of the senior class is a girl - 17-year-old Emily Backman - and she will introduce Dole as a trailblazer for women in politics. ''It's an honor to have her in our school,'' Backman said.
Dole, who has no children, acknowledges she may be in for surprises as she returns to high school. ''The worst things I faced as a teacher were students talking in class, running in the halls, and throwing spitballs,'' Dole said. ''Today it's a very different picture, no question about it.''
