Kids Get Close Up With the Captiol Visitors Center

Twenty thousand kids and teachers can't be wrong. At least that's what the new Capitol Visitor Center hopes. In a dry run to test the new tourist facility on the Capitol grounds before officially cutting the ribbon next month, groups from Close Up, the Washington classroom program, are being invited to play guinea pigs. "Our kids will be figuring out what's working and not," says Close Up President Tim Davis. Close Up, which brings some 20,000 students and teachers to Washington each year for insider briefings and tours, did the same for the Newseum before its opening. "They asked our kids to come in and just run wild," he says. "It helps them work out the bugs."