The real irony of that pic is that he's all set up in the middle of that circular rug which, during a normal school-day, would be occupied by students sitting on the floor around the teacher. A normal, human president would have sat in a chair, or even on the floor, surrounded by kids.
Now.... it could be that he's not nearly so tin-eared as the picture might imply. They could have asked him to set up that way, and then followed a more natural interaction.
But somehow, I doubt it. I'll go to the link and see.