By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Al Gore will spend the next few months teaching and writing while he decides whether to pursue a career in politics.
Columbia University announced Wednesday that the former vice president will teach a graduate-level journalism class "Covering National Affairs in the Information Age" and Gore told The New York Times he also will lecture at two universities in Tennessee, his home state.
He also told the Times he and wife Tipper plan to write a book about families.
"I'm not considering anything political right now, but I haven't ruled out thinking about such things later on," Gore told the Times in a telephone interview from his home in Arlington, Va. "The only decision I've made about politics is not to make a decision until I've had more time for reflection and rest."
Gore, who lost a White House bid to George W. Bush, will join the Columbia staff as a visiting professor in February and has committed to give six to eight lectures during one semester, and possibly two.
Gore told the Times his other teaching jobs will be "community building" courses at Middle Tennessee State University and Fisk University.
The Fisk job will be shared with Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and civil rights leader who was graduated from Fisk.
"I've always wanted to try teaching and I'm particularly excited about teaching these courses on community building because it's something new and to me it's very exciting," Gore told the Times.
He described the emerging discipline as seeking to bring together authorities from fields like education, business, architecture, law and public policy to teach "all of the skills that are relevant to bringing a community to life."
His book with Mrs. Gore is to be published in the fall of 2002.
"Tipper and I have in many ways been preparing for this for over nine years now," he told the Times, referring to their conferences on the family. "We've both made a strong personal and professional commitment to supporting and strengthening the family at a time of tremendous cultural and economic upheaval."
He said the book would blend personal anecdotes with a discussion of history, psychology and policy.
Gore was a reporter at The Tennessean in Nashville for three years in the 1970s and has long held an interest in evolving information technologies.
