Matthew Stanley, a senior at North Surry High School, never cared much for politics.

Well, at least until yesterday morning when Rep. Virginia Foxx, Fifth District N.C., visited his school to enlighten students about government and the current stage of agriculture.

She talked to more than 200 students during two presentations in the cafeteria Wednesday. She came to speak at the request of Aaron Ray Tompkins, the agriscience teacher at the school, who is also the advisor for Future Farmers of America.

She touched on her history with horticulture in North Carolina, working on a farm, and the issues affecting government.

“We will have more debt in this presidential term than all 43 presidencies,” she told the large crowd. “You think it won’t affect you, but it will. It’s a $13 trillion debt that you are going to pay back, your children are going to pay and that their children are going to pay. It will affect you in your lifetime.”

It was that comment that struck a note with Stanley, 17, as he listened to Foxx speak to his classmates.

“My children and my grandchildren, I never thought of that,” shared Stanley, who is the vice president of the Future Farmers of America at North Surry.

“I thought $13 trillion, what the heck?” chimed in Derrick Smith, another member of the FFA, who is a sophomore.

Foxx also told the students that while they may not care about politics now, they may find they will later.

“How many of you pay Social Security? How many of you have jobs?” she asked the crowd.

A handful of students raised their hands.

“The Social Security fund is going bankrupt in seven years,” she said. “This means there is less money going in than what’s coming out.”

She told them the same thing is happening to Medicaid.

“The budget should be important to you,” she said. “What’s happening in Washington and Raleigh affects you.”

“I like when she said ‘you may not want to get into politics, but it will get into you,’” said John Parsons, 18, who is the secretary for the FFA.

He said he was impressed with her agricultural and education background. Foxx told the students she grew up in rural Avery County, just miles away from where she and her husband, Tom, now live. She taught at Caldwell Community College, was a sociology instructor at Appalachian State University and held several administrative positions at ASU, including assistant dean of the General College.

Parsons added that he was impressed that she was once a teacher who worked her way up to congress.

“I think any woman interested in congress or politics should go for it,” he said.

Foxx also spoke about the recent tax increases on tobacco and the Food and Drug Administration’s new authority to regulate tobacco.

She said for people who smoke, grow or sell tobacco, it’s unfair for the government to regulate a legal product and implement taxes to eliminate use of tobacco.

“If the government can tax a legal product like tobacco, what’s to say it can’t other legal products,” she said.

She said she liked chocolate and butter and wouldn’t like if the government told her she couldn’t have it.

“I bet a lot of you like Mountain Dew,” she said. “You wouldn’t want the government to tell you not to drink Mountain Dew.

“We can’t continue to allow the government to impend on our freedom,” she continued. “If you put a frog in hot water, it immediately jumps out. If you put a frog in cold water and turn the heat up slowly, the frog will adjust and stay in the water. It will eventually cook, and that’s what the government is doing to us.”

On a question of what she thinks about President Barack Obama from a student, she said she thinks “he’s a bright guy that has captured a lot of people’s imagination,” but she disagrees with his philosophy.

“His idea is that more government is better, I say less government in people’s lives is better,” she said.

She also encouraged the students to get “broad experiences,” and try different jobs to acquire skills. She said all of them may not go to a four-year university or college, but they should to try to become skillful.

“Degrees don’t make you skillful,” Foxx said. “It’s not going to be possible for you to stay in Surry County and work in one job your whole life. Think: How can my interest and talents fit into the world?”

She also suggested they attend Surry Community College or participate in Early College.

When she talked about the importance of agriculture jobs in North Carolina and that 25 percent of jobs in Surry County are agriculture related, but those jobs are decreasing, Parsons said it really hit home for him.

“I would love to see more people in FFA careers,” he said. “I don’t know why the percentage went down, everywhere you go has something to do with farming. When you go in the stores and look at potatoes and onions, it was because of farmers it’s there.”

Smith, who is 16, said the biggest message he took from Foxx’s speech was that you have to fail sometimes, in order to be a stronger person.

“She said there is life after losing,” he said, referring to when she told the students she ran for school board and didn’t win the election her first time running. “Sometimes you have to lose something to learn something.”

Contact Erin C. Perkins at eperkins@mtairynews.com or 719-1952.