READFIELD — It’s one thing to learn about historic figures in school, but it’s something else entirely to make a human connection to one of those figures. For nearly four dozen students at Maranacook Community Middle School, that moment came Wednesday when they learned that U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, knew Margaret Chase Smith, the late political trailblazer from Skowhegan, who they have been learning about this year. When students heard that King personally knew Smith, students turned to each other with grins and wide eyes; they could not believe it. King told students about Smith and how she would read to the students at Skowhegan’s Margaret Chase Smith School. “‘How are you named after our school?'” King a student asking. King appeared in front of the Maranacook students via Zoom and spoke with them for about an hour about what his day-to-day tasks are like as a U.S. senator and fielded questions crafted by the middle school students. His virtual visit coincided with the school’s “American Dream” curriculum, which includes the drafting of the U.S. Constitution all the way up to Smith, the first woman to serve in both houses of the U.S. Congress, and McCarthyism, the term used to describe the fear-mongering anti-communist period between the 1940s and 1950s that takes its name from Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin. Maine’s junior senator spent about an hour fielding questions from students in three classes and shedding some light on what’s happening in Washington, D.C., with the administration of President Donald Trump. King told the students that he pulled from Smith’s famous “Declaration of Conscience,” which calls out McCarthyism, for his own speech that he gave at the end of April calling out the way that Trump exercises power as president. almost 75 years after Smith, a Republican, delivered a speech defending democracy. Similar to Smith’s speech, it’s less about the agenda, he said, but rather the way in which the president is instilling power while ignoring the matter of law. “The people who started this country did not want a king. They were afraid of too much power in one set of hands. That’s why I am worried about this idea that the president can pick and choose the laws to obey and the appropriation bills. He says, ‘I don’t like this program, so I’m not going to fund it.’ That’s not his call, it’s Congress’,” he told the Maranacook students. King’s virtual visit fit in perfectly with the middle school’s curriculum, Dan Holman, who teaches history and science, said. Neil Logan, an eighth-grade student at Marancook, asked King what he thought about Trump managing to bypass the checks and balance system, specifically through his executive orders. Since January, Trump has signed 152 executive orders, some of which are to dismantle federal organizations, like the Department of Education. King reminded the students that if Trump wants to get rid of a department, he has to go through both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to do so, not through an executive order. Executive orders are not laws, he said. “The main way is that a lot of his supporters in Congress are letting him do it and are not asserting their congressional duties. It really bothers me. They are allowing their power to be passed to the president,” King said. This is the second time King has visited Maranacook Community Middle School students. The first time, nearly two years ago, students asked King what it means to be an American citizen, as they were learning about citizenship and immigration in class. Holman, along with two other teachers at Maranacook, attempt to give students a hands-on experience through their lessons. Before the Maranacook students asked questions, King explained the congressional structure and detailed what his day-to-day schedule is like. He has several staff members to help him get up to speed on policies and some staffers to help respond to the 3,000-4,000 letters and emails he gets on a weekly basis. Although he said each day is different, it typically involves a hearing, a committee meeting and sometimes a vote on a bill. He spends the week in Washington, D.C., and flies back to Maine for the weekends to spend time with family. Last weekend, he attended the Hearts of Pine soccer game alongside Patrick Dempsey, an actor and racecar driver who grew up in Maine. King even named his favorite pizza topping, which he said is barbecue chicken. “He’s done this since 2013,” Matthew Felling, King’s communication director said. “He has a commitment to instill civic literacy. It goes back to his lecturing days at Bowdoin College.” King left the call saying that in his 10-13 years visiting schools, the Maranacook students had the best questions for him. “(Hearing King) makes it real for the students,” Holman said. “It’s a way to elevate their thinking outside of the classroom.”