December 10, 2013
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We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution High School Competition
Unit three judges (at left from left) Marika Athens, Grier Hopkins and Karla Welch listen to the North Pole team's answer to their question "How has the Constitution been changed to further the ideals contained in the Declaration of Independence?" during the We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution High School Competition Wednesday morning, December 4, 2013 at the Westmark Hotel.
FAIRBANKS — High school students from Fairbanks, North Pole and Anchorage participated Wednesday in a competition that judged them on their knowledge of one of the most important documents in United States history — the U.S. Constitution.
Created in 1787, and added to through several amendments during the country’s more than 200-year history, the document serves as the central guiding principal for the government of the world’s largest democratic country.
Students from West Valley, North Pole, Monroe Catholic and South Anchorage high schools competed in the event. Teams from each school rotated through rooms at the Westmark Hotel in Fairbanks, presenting in front of panels of local judges.
Despite the Constitution’s importance to American way of life, many citizens lack a true grasp of its statements and provisions. While many people might be able to say what the Second Amendment guarantees or that they “plead the Fifth,” many would likely be stumped if asked to cite the Third Amendment or one of the many lesser known Amendments.
Each team’s goal Wednesday was to show the judges they had a mastery not only of the Constitution’s content and purpose, but also of its context and origins.
North Pole team member Abby Dunham said she enjoys the competition because she gets the chance to present her knowledge but also because it helps her delve further into her country’s past and current events.
“I’m more educated because I’m in this, and I’m more passionate about my rights and being an American,” Dunham said.
Maida Buckley, the competition’s coordinator, got involved in We the People years ago as a classroom teacher. She said the program helps students feel empowered and encourages them to become engaged citizens.
“Students learn about government in a very active and practical way,” Buckley said. “It’s not hard because they enjoy doing it.”
Buckley said she has seen many student competitors go on to take on leadership roles and who have credited their participation in the competition with helping them get there.
“The strength of the We the People program is it’s ability to stress that the same arguments about how much power the government should have that the founders wrestled with are the same arguments that we’re having today,” Buckley said. “The new connections that students bring to that argument and then make the founders not seem like old white dead guys from 200 hundred years ago, but really people who have something to say to us.”
South Anchorage would go on to win the competition Wednesday and advance to the national level. West Valley took second place.
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