The woman behind the 'Zen-like' question

By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

Perhaps the most memorable question came at the end of Tuesday night's presidential debate, when Tom Brokaw asked what he described as a "Zen-like" query submitted online by Peggy in Amherst, N.H.

The question -- "What don't you know and how will you learn it?" -- did not, however, come from a Zen master, a Buddhist monk, or a student of Confucius. It was the brainchild of Peggy Silva, a 60-year-old high school teacher who has been lobbing the question at presidential candidates for the last 18 years.

"I'm the least Zen-like person on the planet," Silva said with a laugh in a telephone interview this afternoon. "I'm chaotic, I'm disorganized, and I giggle."

Living in New Hampshire has given the writing coordinator and literacy coach at Souhegan High School ample opportunity to grill presidential hopefuls. Silva said she posed the question to Governor Bill Clinton during his first presidential run in 1992, and did the same to Governor George W. Bush in 2000. Vice President Al Gore pondered the answer the night before the New Hampshire primary at the Harold H. Wilkins elementary school in Amherst. Senator John Edwards has taken the question, and so has his wife, Elizabeth.

Silva first asked Senator John McCain how he would learn what he didn't know in 2000 at the Amherst Middle School. McCain began answering the question, but stumbled and stopped, Silva said. He spotted her in the audience again a few minutes later and tried again, but cut himself off. After the town hall ended, Silva said McCain found her in the crowd and gave her a hug.

"In my 11 visits today this is the first time I heard a question that caused me to think," McCain said, according to Silva.

On Tuesday night, Silva said did not know that her question had made the cut. Feeling ill, she left her husband alone in front of the television and went to bed before the debate concluded.

"Then I heard my husband shouting from the living room," said Silva, who immediately climbed out of bed and watched a recording of the candidates' answers.

How did McCain do when he got a second crack at it? He treated the question much the same way Senator Barack Obama did, as a jumping off point for a closing statement. Both candidates used it as an opportunity, Silva said, to recite their same "tried and true" talking points.

"My goal is not to stump the responders," said Silva, a registered Democrat and ardent Obama supporter. "My goal is to elicit a thoughtful response that prevented a rote answer."

So far, the best answer has come from Gore in 2000, Silva said, when he gave a "thoughtful response about our need to learn more about the environment."