Model Congress Week

Last week we had our annual Model Congress in the government classes. We divide into a House and Senate, and committees within each branch, and try to pass bills. Our bills were all proposed changes in the student handbook. I act as the president and, as always, I returned a few vetoes, about half of which were overridden. In the end, about 90% of the bills failed, and this is a good approximation of what happens in Congress. Some of the bills that passed would raise the number of unexcused tardies, allow for out-of-class cellphone use, allow seniors to go off campus for lunch, and create a volleyball team. We hope to meet with Principal Turner soon to go over the bills the passed - this always leads to interesting discussions, and last year did lead to a revision of the tardy policy.

Plans for the Iowa adventure are proceeding as we are developing our contacts in the campaigns. Our precise schedule will be a last minute one, given the fluidity of campaign schedules.

For our government students, we are exploring a proposed field trip to New Hampshire on January 8 to do exit polling at the NH primary. We have done exit polls for years at the Harwich elections, and assembled detailed analysis of voting trends. This trip to NH would be an excellent (and rare) opportunity for our students to witness history first hand. You can view the results of our past exit polls and surveys at a link off my school web page *under construction*: http://www.harwich.edu/depts/history/dickson/gov.html

Our Harwich STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur) completed the DarfurFast the week before, and last week we totalled our fundraising which amounted to $714 which we will donate to the Genocide Intervention Network to aid the millions of Darfuri refugees from the genocide in Sudan. We received good press in the Cape Cod Times, the Cape Cod Chronicle, the Harwich Oracle, and at least two radio stations. I am very proud of the discipline and sacrifice of our members and their leadership in the school. Student activism gives me hope for the future.

Going to Iowa

Welcome to the Harwich High School Government Blog. Government has been a required course at HHS for more than 30 years, which we believe to be unique in the state, though more towns are starting to add this requirement. I think this has a lot to do with the unusually active character of Harwich politics (compare our turnout rates). I took over the course from the legendary Kris Larson in 1997, and have continued the tradition of schooling our seniors in the details of American politics at the local, state, national and international levels.

The impetus for starting this blog is the 2008 presidential election, which at this point is the most wide-open race in the modern primary era. In addition to following this race closely (we’ve watched parts of each debate in class as well as role playing debates of both parties), I have a unique opportunity to actually witness to the first great drama of the campaign, the Iowa Caucuses.

On Wednesday, January 2, I will head to Iowa to meet up with several friends for a barnstorming tour. We will spend Wednesday and Thursday going to every event we can get to, before ending up at a Caucus somewhere outside of Des Moines Thursday night. I plan to post a reports throughout the day from the different events and hope to relay the excitement generated by this potentially historical turning point.

After Iowa, our class will *follow* the presidential hopefuls to New Hampshire and all the way to the national party conventions.

John Dickson
Social Studies Teacher
Harwich (MA) High School