State Rep. Mark Hargrove visited Tahoma High School Dec. 12. After a morning of observing different language arts classes, he did some co-teaching with Daren Fickel, a national board certified teacher.

After Hargrove introduced himself, one of Fickel’s students asked him, in a very candid spirit, “Why are you here?”

As subtle laughter came over the classroom, Hargrove responded that he was there to learn.

“Your teacher invited me to come and see what’s going on here,” he said. “I saw teachers teaching on the same subject but with very different styles; from a much more formal setting to much more casual.”

He added, “It’s good for me to see how this stuff works.”

Fickel, who has been at Tahoma for two years, was teaching his pre-AP language class with Hargrove. The sophomores were tasked with analyzing the structure and content of argumentative essays that were written by other students for the SAT exam. Part of the learning has been about ethos, pathos and logos, also known as Aristotle’s “ingredients for persuasion.”

Hargrove connected the lesson of the day to his work as a legislator, saying having a well thought out argument is very critical in politics, especially in committee hearings and on the floor in Olympia.

He said if someone testifies in front of a committee and their argument is not well organized, they may have lost their effect on the legislators.

“It needs to be concise, it needs to have all of those elements of the ethos, pathos and logos,” Hargrove said to the students. “If you don’t have all of those things organized, you’ve lost your impact.”

Rep. Pat Sullivan was scheduled to join Hargrove during the visit but ultimately couldn’t make it because of a last-minute conference call. He rescheduled his visit to Fickel’s classroom for Friday.

On Dec. 2 Sen. Joe Fain, made an appearance in Fickel’s classroom.

The students analyzed speeches using the same criteria of ethos, pathos and logos.

Fickel said co-teaching was a “natural fit for (Fain)” because he also teaches a political science class at Highline Community College.