“It was kind of a mess. I mean I had a good time, but it was kind of a mess.” That’s how Arielle Sedman, a sophomore, described her reaction to the House of Representatives assembly which took place in December.
The sophomore House of Representatives assembly happens once a year and is meant to be a model to show how legislation is passed in the United States House of Representatives. Each year, sophomore history students write individual bills on topics that they research. Then, the bills go through a process of selection to determine which ones make it to the model House. Only five bills out of all the students’ bills are presented at the assembly, and the bills are explained and debated before the sophomore class votes ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ for the bills to become “laws”.
This year, after the assembly, sophomore students were told by their teachers that they were collectively the worst class to ever participate in the assembly. The reaction from the students was not exactly positive either. A couple of history teachers and a group of sophomore students shared their perspectives on the event.
Mr. Abarr, one of the sophomore history teachers here at Oliver Ames, said that there were “highs and lows.” He thought that the students “put a lot of work, effort, and thought into their bills,” but that there was a lack of the “ability to listen and thoughtfully respond to… classmates.”
Another sophomore history teacher, Mrs. Kenney, said that she was “really proud of the bills that were put forth” but that with classes “it’s always kind of hit or miss.” She said that she thinks classes “make the most of [the assembly] to the level that they want” and that this year’s sophomore class “as a whole could have been a little bit more serious about the House of Representatives.”
During the assembly, teachers noted that some students were acting rude or disrespectful towards their peers and towards the activity in general. Zyra Arif, a student who was at the assembly said about the sophomore class as a whole, “I think we were really disrespectful. We were really loud, and then we would make fun of people.” Mr. Abarr said, “I think to me the worst part about it was the lack of respect that certain students had for some of their classmates.”
Mrs. Kenney made sure to point out that the problem was “not the kids on stage, not the vast majority of kids asking questions,” but that she would have “liked to see the entire class take it a little bit more seriously.”
Teachers were not the only ones that were disappointed with the assembly, and many students afterwards expressed why it wasn’t what they had hoped for either. Sarah Orsinger said that even though it was educational, she felt the assembly “could have been more informative if people took it seriously.”
Other problems that students had with the assembly had more to do with the organization of the event than with the participation. Madeline Sant said that, among other problems, she thought that “the entire voting system was horrible” and that the assembly was “poorly organized.” Votes were taken by asking the ‘nay’ group to say “nay” and the ‘yay’ group to say “yay”. Whichever group sounded louder won the vote. Sarah Orsinger agreed with Madeline, saying that “screaming isn’t really a good way [to count votes].” Sarah also said that she felt the assembly should have been, “a lot more organized, both on the teachers’ and students’ part.”
Arielle Sedman said that if she were to change the project, she would “change the voting system… and, as a teacher, make sure that [students are] serious about [the project] before putting them onstage to present the bill.”
Mr. Abarr mentioned that some of the teachers were talking about making minor changes in the future, saying, “Some of my peers and I talked about maybe setting up seating charts, so you could have a little bit more control over potential situations where people don’t act appropriately together.” He said that the teachers would otherwise “keep everything else pretty much the same – the rules, the structures of the bills, and the debates.”
The students said that they liked other parts of the House of Representatives project even if they didn’t enjoy the assembly. “I enjoyed when we were in small groups in the class. There was probably like ten of us in a small group, and we all actually discussed each other’s bills,” said Sarah.
Other students said that they also enjoyed the committees, or enjoyed researching and writing bills of their own. Even Mrs. Kenney commented on the in-class work, saying “I know all the sophomore teachers felt like the committee work that happened in class was awesome this year, and the ideas that kids had for bills were in a greater scope than we’ve ever seen before.”
Mrs. Kenney also highlighted how important it is to understand the way a republic works, and how this project shows kids part of that. She said, “Even in a modified, kind of watered-down system that you can do in a week in a high school, I think kids understand that 300 of their peers wrote bills, five made it to the stage, and only two passed.”
Despite the chaos and disappointment, everyone who shared their opinions on the matter agreed that the project should definitely be done again in the future. Maybe next year it won’t be such a mess.