Congressional contest put Mill Creek Middle School students through their paces

On a warm June evening when most of their classmates were out in the sunshine, a group of students was hunkered down at a table, contemplating the finer points of a document that most adults don’t think about on a daily basis.

The U.S. Constitution.

The scene was Mill Creek Middle School and the event was the Mock Congressional Hearing – the culmination of a year spent studying the seminal set of laws penned by the nation’s founding fathers.

On this warm evening, teams of the top scholars in teacher James Frank’s social studies class were sweating bullets as they formulated answers to questions about the Constitution posed by a panel of judges. And their questioners weren’t just any judges – they were among Kent’s top brass: Mayor Suzette Cooke, Councilman Ron Harmon and city staffer Victoria Andrews.

Bathed in the lights on a raised stage and watched by their families, schoolmates and teachers, the teams of students battled to provide the best answers to the often complex questions proffered by Cooke and company.

One of the questions: Should elected representatives of the people vote their conscience, or the will of the people they represent?

“They were voted on by people for the common welfare,” one of the team members responded after some thought. “In the civic arena, they should set aside their personal concerns for the common good.”

The questions flew and the answers came back – sometimes pregnant with pauses, and sometimes with the speed of insight.

“You look relaxed,” Cooke told one group of teens after they’d survived a round of friendly, yet focused questioning. “Are you really relaxed?”

In the quiet that ensued, someone in the audience piped up and said “No!” The team members broke into smiles.

After each of the five teams (one team of scholars per each class of Frame’s) had its time under the lights, the judges turned in their scores, and the team with the highest average was chosen as the winner. Students Jordan Batang, Edson Zaldivar, Stephanie O’Hara, Jaylin Hill and Crisstian Ortega looked happy and relieved onstage as they received applause for their winning effort.

Frame, reached after the hearing, said he was pleased with the event and how well the students did, even under pressure. It was an education, he noted, on several fronts: being able to meet deadlines, having effective study habits, and, above all, gaining insight into the workings of the U.S. government.

That kind of understanding, he said, is critical in creating citizens who take an active role in the direction of their country.

“They get to become informed citizens, not just participants in the process,” Frame said, of the curriculum they used and the often healthy debates it fostered in class. “It instills those ideas in the students early on. The kids demonstrated strong knowledge of the functions of government and were able to related our national government to their daily lives.

Language arts teacher Karen Rossman, who collaborated on some parts of the curriculum with Frame, said she thought the program worked.

“I think they got what we wanted them to get,” she said. “Basically what our country is all about.”

For their part, the judges came away impressed with the level of understanding the contestants showed, even under pressure and in the spotlight.

“I know we’re in good hands with your leadership,” Cooke told one group of students following the questions. “I’m just worried we’re going to have to wait until you’re out of high school.”

Student Hill said he had been plenty nervous.

“I was super-nervous,” he said. “But then I just thought how good it would feel if we won, and I calmed down.”

His teammate O’Hara someone managed to keep it together, too.

“Afterwards, I just collapsed,” she said.

The names of the winning team members will be engraved on a plaque in the school office.