I motion to end debate, er, move, er … what? -– Abri

I am going to have a class full of disappointed faces tomorrow morning. It’s not that I want to make the legislative process more difficult. It’s not that I am trying to prevent the 1st Session of the 111th Congress from passing any key legislation. The fact remains that I am the President of the United States of America (at least, for the next week) and I need to protect my citizens, even if my Senate believes that they should be able to restrict some rights. You see, my class full of 28 Senators just passed a bill to require mandatory driving tests for Americans over the age of 65. Technically, that is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. More on that later …

We are a third of the way through our Model Congress and it is even better than I anticipated that it would be. I have served as a student representative in the past, but none of those experiences reached the level of engagement that I have seen over the past week. Our Congress is more limited because of its size and time restrictions, but we’re still getting some quality work. All of our students have been assigned to a committee and more than half of our students are serving in a position of Congressional leadership (such as the Speaker of the House, the Majority Leader, the Minority Whip, etc).

Our students are quickly picking up on parliamentary procedure as well as the ins and outs of committee work. They are also discovering that passing a bill through Congress is a lot more work than they thought it would be. In the real world, only 4% of bills that go through Congress actually make it into law. One of my students (let’s call him Daniel*) stopped me in the hallway last week and asked, “So, is this really what it’s like? My bill is stuck in committee. Is there any way that I can get it out? How does Congress ever manage to get anything done?”

It is a fair question. How does Congress ever manage to get anything done? Daniel and his fellow students are discovering that the key is compromise, compromise, compromise. They are also living the legislative process instead of just reading about it. They are seeing first-hand how our government is structured to allow everyone to express their opinion, to allow only the best bills to go through, to restrict those who would try to harm a section of the American population, and to make sure that one governing body does not wield too much power.

Which brings me back to my role: I am the president. It is my job to check my own students and ensure that they are working for the best interests of the American public and not just for themselves. Of course, they can still override me, if 2/3 of them decide that I am wrong. In that case, the bill will go to another teacher in the school who acts as the Supreme Court. There is no way to override him!

Regardless of if this bill sees the metaphorical light of day, this simulation is providing my students with a window into the real world. They are living government, an experience that will hopefully stick with them for years and that might change how critical they are of their representatives in the future. I have discovered that the key to a good simulation is providing students with an authentic experience that they can make their own, and I can’t wait to see what else my students come up with.

By the way, the title of the post is supposed to be “I motion to move the previous question.” The students are still working on that one! But I think that they will have it down by Friday.

* Name changed to protect the student