"The secretary is not planning to put a big plan on the table, " state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, stressing the trip was a "listening tour".
He grew up hearing the same dinner-table conversations about lipstick market share and department store displays as his elder brother William, who's now president of Clinique Laboratories.
But he demanded "serious and urgent round table talks" between head teachers, the Department for Education, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to work out a way of giving sport greater prominence on the school timetable.