by Dennis Jenkins
On Friday morning, half of the class participated in a round-table discussion over the death penalty in relation to a 1970s Supreme Court case. The other half of the class prepared for a debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan during the 1980 election. We contrasted campaign commercials between the two candidates and watched a clip from their actual 1980 debate before Sean and Jonah role-played Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. Students then researched topics from Reagan’s first term.
After lunch, the class watched part of Thursday’s Democratic Primary debate among ten of the candidates. We then went to the computer lab to take part in a political survey regarding the 2020 election. When we returned from the lab, we drew names to see which candidates each student will represent in our Presidential Legacy Tournament. We ended class by playing an interactive team game called Beyond Balderdash.
On Sunday night we resumed study hall. Students debated court cases on affirmative action and examined current events in politics. We enjoyed working with each student this week and hope they had a great weekend.
Note: Teacher Dennis Jenkins will be posting updates on his course, Presidential Politics, throughout VAMPY.