WASHINGTON -- Oregon middle school teacher Michael Geisen got to meet President Bush Wednesday when he was celebrated as the national teacher of the year.

But the honor fell short of what a friend of Geisen's 5-year-old son had bragged: While in Washington, Geisen would actually be the president.

Geisen's story drew a laugh Wednesday as he and Bush shared a stage at a Rose Garden ceremony.

But Geisen said it illustrated a notable quality about children that adults often overlook.

If kids "are not sure about something, they will give it a shot anyway. They'll just go for it," Geisen said. "Children have this tremendous creative capacity and this natural curiosity about the world that I think as adults that we can really learn from, and that we would really do well to foster."

Fostering creativity is a top goal for Geisen, 35, who gave up a career as a forester to become a middle school teacher seven years ago. He has never regretted the choice.

"I wasn't passionate about what I was doing" in forestry, said Geisen, who lives in Redmond, Ore., and teaches seventh-grade science at Crook County Middle School in Prineville.

"I needed something to get me out of bed in the morning," he said. "I'm making a difference in the lives of kids."

Too often, Geisen said, schools overwhelmed by test regimes and bureaucracy end up squelching creativity rather than encouraging it.

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"We squander the entrepreneurial spirit of children because we place such a high value on being right all the time," Geisen said. "Students need to know that we value more than just being right all the time. We need to really honor their creativity, we need to honor their desire to learn useful skills that are going to be relevant in a 21st century world."

Innovation, ingenuity and "people skills" such as compassion and collaboration are just as important as math, reading and writing, Geisen said.

Geisen, who has taught seventh grade his whole career, is known for making science fun. To keep students involved, he writes songs, develops games and helped start "The Night of the Electric Creation," in which students design projects to show off their energy knowledge.

One of his ditties is a blues song written from the perspective of a lonely bacterium. "Gravity," sung to the tune of the Beatles' "Come Together," highlights "old Geisen" with a "tiny soul patch" and messed-up hair. He slips on a grease spot and "flies gracefully, for a moment in the air it feels like zero G."

In a field thought of as left-brain and analytical, "I try and infuse as much creativity as possible," Geisen said.

Bush said he was impressed with Geisen's sense of humor, noting that the teacher had casually remarked that he liked what the president had done with the Rose Garden.

"All I did was mow the lawn," Bush said.

Bush noted that this was his last teacher-of-the-year ceremony -- an event he said has been one of the favorites for him and first lady Laura Bush.

"This is a fabulous opportunity for us to thank our teachers -- people who could be doing something else in life and have chosen to go in the classroom to lift somebody's life up, to make a difference in the future of the country," Bush said, addressing Geisen and 55 other teachers honored Wednesday.

"I appreciate you making our experience here in the White House a joyful experience," he said. "I thank you for making America a more hopeful place."

Geisen said he plans to continue teaching, but will spend most of the next year traveling around the country, speaking about teaching and learning.