THE show must go on and American politics lived up to its billing. Democracy regrouped this week in the wake of the seditious storming of the Capitol Building. The US Presidential Inauguration was outstanding theatre in which the costumes alone deserved a standing ovation. But embedded in its story of democracy renewed was a quiet metaphor about the power of schooling.

So, for all those frustrated home-teachers out there who would rather be watching Call My Agent than trying to explain trigonometry to a feckless brat, breathe deeply and reflect on the quiet authority of Dr Jill Biden.

The new first lady will break with all previous protocols and continue her day job. She teaches English composition at ­Northern Virginia Community College (Nova), where she worked throughout the Obama administration when she was already the wife of the vice-president. Reports have it that Jill Biden was so determined to maintain normality that she requested that the Secret Service agents who accompanied her to work went in disguise as students and kept their weaponry hidden away under campus hoodies.

Many of her students have since expressed surprise that she was so unassuming, some even admitted that they had no idea who she was until Biden’s victory speech in Delaware.

I must come clean an admit I am in love with Jill Biden. Her performance was ­immaculate, here was a woman who commanded centre stage but never uttered a word, that is the ultimate definition of quiet authority. There was only one fleeting moment of dampening tears, when she turned upstage away from her ­husband and his weighty bible, but even then, she held her emotions in check.

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I would dearly love to write one of those unrestrained Vogue columns and praise her azure coat, the one with the velvet lapels paired with a matching dress and indigo face mask. Her outfit was designed by the New York–based designer Alexandra O’Neill, an emergent US designer from rural Colorado. Then democratic snobbery would permit me to bitchily sneer at the departing Melania Trump who left the White House sporting a $75,000 Birkin Handbag, paid for by someone else, probably the US taxpayer.

But I’m not that kinda guy and would never stoop so low.

Outfits can speak eloquently, or they can bewilder. What the hell was Lady Gaga wearing? Her rendition of the American national anthem was outstanding, a hugely uplifting moment, that was somehow defiant and triumphant. But did she have to turn up with her mum’s curtains tied round a hula-hoop? I felt so sorry for the elegantly uniformed marine that led her to the podium, he must have been wondering if armed militia from ­Bitter Creek, Mississippi were hiding ­under her frock.

The only dignitary that came close to upstaging Gaga was the irrepressible Bernie Sanders who sat throughout the proceedings like an Aberdeen fan sooking pan drops in the main stand at ­Pittodrie, as another goalless draw unfolded in front of him. Bernie’s woollen mittens quickly became a Twitter phenomenon. It transpired that the woman who had knitted them was another link back to the quiet dignity of teaching. Jen Ellis is a second-grade teacher in Essex Junction, Vermont and one of Bernie’s dedicated supporters. When she was not knitting mittens, she built an outdoor classroom where she teaches kids in the cold, safe from the pandemic.

The inauguration was emotionally powerful, but emotions can ignite an uncontrollable spark in these divided days.

Some Biden supporters said they found themselves overcome by a wave of relief but that it was tempered with anxiety. No one was willing to say it but there was concern that the proverbial stake has not been driven deep enough into the dark heart of Trumpism. A worry exists, addressed by Biden himself, that America needs to repair but that will not be easy and grandiose theatre may not be the answer. A period of quietness may be the answer, which brings us back to Jill Biden.

Jill Biden’s role as first lady could be transformative. In the past the focus of the wife of the president has been measured by the decorative changes they make to the interiors of the White House. A few notable exceptions have broken ranks, the redoubtable Eleanor Roosevelt was a champion of the performing arts.

Then there was Michelle Obama, who by virtue of being married to the first black president was a powerful ­personification of change. She wore a marron trouser suit belted with a golden buckle and the gentlest hint of ghetto fabulous, but, always appropriate to the moment, merged subtly into the background realising this was Jill Biden’s day.

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There is something reassuringly feminist about Jill Biden, insisting that she has a life beyond her husband, asserting that her career matters but not shirking from public duty when it serves a greater good.

Jill Biden’s students have been very prominent in the US press this week, inevitably supporting their teacher and yet none of them describing her in an over familiar way or implying that she is soft on them. Among the most consistent comments is that she is quietly authoritative, does not suffer fools gladly and can be a firm marker of course work. Quiet ­authority is a hugely welcome virtue in the ­aftermath of the Trump presidency where a noisy and vacuous screeching was often a substitute for statecraft.

One of the virtues that already underpins the Biden presidency, a skill he shares with Lyndon B Johnson, is that he knows how politics works, can find allies, and can push legislation though the system even under duress and opposition. Biden has been inside the belly of the beast for decades.

Before the last notes of Lady Gaga’s fine anthem had dissipated over Capitol Hill, President Biden was at work, signing what the Washington Post described as “a blizzard of executive orders on the coronavirus, immigration and climate change — launching a 10-day cascade of directives reversing policies of his GOP predecessor as Democrats pushed for even more-sweeping and prompt legislative action”.

What they did not mention is that Biden shows his homework to his wife who scans his written directives for errors and overweening clichés. She is by Biden’s admission a tough marker.

As the formidable Amanda Gorman, the National Youth Poet Laureate, rose in her canary-yellow jacket to recite her poem to democracy, The Hill We Climb, her age, her diversity and her charming self-confidence spoke to the true values of American opportunity. It was a virtuoso performance by one so young but a side of me wished that Jill Biden had reached over at the end just to mark her work.

I suspect a point would have been deducted for the use of “air quotes” midway through the poem and maybe another for lack of brevity. Let’s not forget that Maya Angelou took criticism after Bill Clinton’s first inauguration for her poem, On the Pulse of the Morning. As any good teacher will tell you age alone does not make you immune from criticism

The inauguration was a hugely uplifting experience, one that brought me close to tears. If the unpredictable drama of American politics overheats again, we should all feel reassured of one thing, that there is a quietly authoritative teacher in the White House.

I suspect deep down that is what we have all been yearning. Nice coat too.