by Dennis Jenkins
It is hard to believe we have reached our last week at VAMPY. This week our class will examine politics during the 21st century. We began Monday’s class by reading about the controversy regarding the 2000 presidential election. The students then role-played the Bush v. Gore Supreme Court case; they each took on the role of a Supreme Court justice, attorney or witness. This year’s class decided by one vote that the Florida recount be allowed to continue. Students also had a group discussion about having term limits for Congress. The class created an amendment that congressional representatives be allowed to serve no more than 10 terms and senators no more than four terms. Students then spent the rest of the morning watching campaign commercials, actual debate clips, and political satire from Saturday Night Live regarding the 2000 presidential election. Students next created campaign posters and prepared for a role-play debate over the presidential election.
After lunch, students participated in one of the debates between George W. Bush and Al Gore. The class then went to the computer lab to finish their research for our annual Presidential Face-Off Tournament. During the last hour of class students participated in the first round. The winners were President Abraham Lincoln, President John Kennedy, and President Theodore Roosevelt.
In study hall, students continued working on their Mount Rushmore project and watched part of the telecast of the announcement of whom President Trump has nominated for the Supreme Court.
