The AP Government class at Thomas Jefferson takes part in the traditional We The People competition.
Photo courtesy Jon Poole.
For nearly two decades, Thomas Jefferson high school has participated in a rigorous competition that tests the students’ debate skills while preparing them for their futures simultaneously. This year, on November 17th, Thomas Jefferson high school displayed the skill its students have to offer at the annual We The People competition.
“I’ve been teaching at TJ for five years, and I’ve brought the students to the competition every year,” said Competition Adviser and Social Studies Teacher Jon Poole. “It’s a great opportunity for the students to be exposed to higher level discussion and debate and it prepares them for the future,” said Poole.
Tradition holds that the junior class taking AP Government takes part in the competition. Different schools from around the Denver region all participate in the event.
Before the competition, students are given a unit with three main questions with corresponding sub-questions, and are not informed which issue they will have to support or reject until the day of the competition. For approximately eight weeks the students enter a rigorous preparation for the competition, collecting information from historic or current court cases, laws that are still in effect, and any other sources from which they can garner information that relates to their questions.
Before the actual competition, the students prepare a speech and master their topics of all questions they’re given, even though it is only one topic on which they take a side. “At the competition, the students present their four minute previously prepared speech, and then follow up with a six minute rebuttal from the judges,” said Poole. “The rebuttal is the difficult part because the students have to be on their toes and be ready for any question the judges might throw at them.”
The results this year didn’t vary too far from the recent past. “The students came in third out of fifth, beating out Lincoln and George Washington high school,” said Poole. “Last year TJ came in second, but the class was a lot smaller. Because of the promotion of AP classes that took place before the 2009-2010 school year, more kids joined the AP Government class, so the competition got a lot more rigorous.”
There are currently two different class periods of AP Government, and before the competition the students have to compete against each other to see which class will have the opportunity to go to the actual event. “Last year, both classes got to go because the judging staff made an exception solely for the good experience, but the students didn’t know who was actually being graded until everyone had presented and the competition was over,” said Senior David Sanchez who participated in the competition last year. “It made the competition very exciting.”
