AP Government Students could not quite break the curse of third place in the We The People competition.
Artwork by Mia Nogueira
On November 16th, TJ Juniors headed downtown to participate in the Congressional Hearing We The People and took third place overall.
Every year Social Studies Teacher Jon Poole takes a group of AP government students to the mock Congressional hearing called We the People. These students were grouped according to units in their textbook and then given three focus questions. They were then to answer those questions in front of local governmental figures who were acting as judges. The questions that were presented to them had to combine the American History and Constitutional Law they learned, and relate those topics to government today. Students were to write an essay answering each question, which then was turned into a speech and presented to the judges, who included state legislators, law professors, local attorneys, and more. Unfortunately, the students and Poole were not entirely happy with the results of the debate.
Poole talks about some of the potential downfalls this group faced. “This class really procrastinated on speeches and the essays. I actually had to give an extension to the entire class because they didn’t take it seriously. Eventually the groups got it together, though,” said Poole, who explained that competitions like this are very rigorous and students often crack under pressure. “Some kids really stepped it up. I think that some of the kids got a lot out of it; the whole point is to get that exposure and learn the content, so hopefully that happened,” explained Poole.
Effort makes all the difference in a high-pressure competition like this. Junior Becca Randall was part of a group who Poole described as doing incredibly well. She attributes their success to hard work and focus. “We were one of the groups who actually came in after school and worked on it outside of class,” said Randall. “This competition really taught us what ‘crunch time’ felt like. We also learned how to collaborate and come together to make a good presentation.”
Randall had some words of wisdom for next year’s juniors, saying, “Don’t wait until the last minute! Do as much as you can outside of class because you don’t have that much time in class.”
Despite all the hard work and stress that the competitors had to deal with, students felt that the entire experience was an outside of the box way to learn constitutional law.
Because many students do not have the opportunity to meet such prominent local figures or even compete in a competition like this, and despite the fact that TJ placed third, the students were proud of what they accomplished.
