Godwin Heights — The debate was intense as the students in Patrick Snyder’s eighth-grade social studies class discussed how the states should be represented in a central government.
The Godwin Heights Middle School students were participating in a reenactment of the United States’ Constitutional Convention, which took place in 1787 to address the weaknesses of the central government under the Articles of Confederation and create a new framework of government.
One of the goals of the reenactment was to provide students with a deeper understanding of the events that took place during the convention, which ultimately led to the creation of the U.S. Constitution and the establishment of the current federal government, Snyder said.
“Through this, the students are able to debate, listen and learn about what took place and demonstrate what they have learned, which is more than what a test or exam could provide.”
Snyder also aimed for the two-day event to be culturally responsive, allowing students to incorporate their personalities into the debate. Prior to the lesson, each student was given an image of a delegate’s face and encouraged to personalize it.
“Encouraging kids to dress up and to color the delegates’ faces in their own unique way hopefully helped to validate their individual identities,” Snyder said. “Also, I was hoping that it made history feel more relevant to them while building important skills and knowledge.”
Getting Into Character
During the reenactment, students portrayed delegates from 12 of the 13 states at the time — Rhode Island did not participate in the original Constitutional Convention. Snyder led the discussion as George Washington.
At the beginning of the class, students spent a few minutes reviewing their delegate as Snyder handed out costumes.
Once everyone was prepared, Snyder opened the convention and delegates greeted one another.
“Hello, I’m William Few,” said eighth-grader Kim Lam as she shook Snyder’s hand. “I am a lawyer and delegate from Georgia.”
After introductions, Snyder presented the first topic of discussion — representation in a central government — and the ground rules for speaking. Students were required to follow the rules of the convention: address the person who spoke before them, say thank you for their ideas and then either agree or disagree and state their reason why.
Let the Debate Begin
Eighth-grader Chris Macegosa, who portrayed John Lansing Jr. from Virginia, said he supported representation based on population, a popular sentiment at the time among larger states like Virginia.
“I disagree,” said Erendiriana Paz, who as William Patterson from New Jersey presented the small states position. “I think we should choose Proposal B, an equal vote in congress.”
The debate continued until Snyder encouraged his students to turn to their delegate group and come up with a compromise. Solutions offered were representation on population, with small states being given extra seats, to taxing the larger states to support the smaller ones.
Eighth-grader Antony Matias, as Roger Sherman from Connecticut, presented what has become known as The Great Compromise.
“I believe there should be a compromise for equal representation and representation based on population in that there should be two houses,” Antony said. One house would be based on representation by population, which became the House of Representatives, and the other house would be equal representation, which became the U.S. Senate.
Once Antony’s proposal passed, students cheered and applauded as Snyder declared “Job well done.”
Afterward, eighth-grader Angel Gonzalez, who portrayed James Wilson from Pennsylvania, said he enjoyed being a part of the convention, especially being able to dress up and experience it.
Read more from Godwin Heights:
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• Cultural fair: Students share countries, culture
