Those magnificent generations of civil servants who have come before, many with those same robes, are waiting on you now. They are waiting because the generation of Americans who will deliver on that boldest promise of all will not do it at the point of a gun, they will not do it with the crack of a gavel, not with a speech from the well of the Senate, they will do it with a book on a beanbag chair with our babies. It is only there that America will finally find its greatest dream of itself, delivered by her proudest and most passionate patriots – the American teacher. The right to know, the power to act, the will to love: lead us there.
what's 'well' in the sentence above? I looked up dictionary and there aren't any definitions of 'well' as a noun that help me understand 'the well of the senate'..
And what's the meaning of the following phrase 'they will do it with a book on a beanbag chair with our babies.' ? I mean, I understand this sentence itself word by word but I don't understand the sentence in the context. Why does that baby sentence just showed up here?
Best Answer
I'm going to paraphrase the sentence in the way I interpret it:
The language being used is very figurative and symbolic. Books, beanbag chairs, and babies collectively evoke the picture of reading aloud in a nurturing environment – something that can be done at home and in the schools.
As for the well of the Senate, other answers have explained the meaning of that phrase. I just wanted to add that I believe this comes from the physical resemblance between looking down into the round Senate chamber from above and looking down into a physical well from a similar angle.