For Students, Hearing Room Is Where the Action Is

‘We the People’ program boosts civic involvement among its participants.

Washington

The hearing room on the fifth floor of the Dirksen Senate Office Building was packed with spectators last week who had flown across the country to hear witnesses testify on the constitutional implications of affirmative action programs.

But the lineup wasn’t composed of the usual types of people who testify before Congress. Instead, it was made up of high school students who were being scored on their “testimony” by a panel of expert judges, playing the role of lawmakers, as part of a national civics education competition.

During one hearing, in response to a judge’s question about how minority rights are ensured under the U.S. Constitution, Heidi Rickes, a senior at Essex High School in Essex Junction, Vt., argued that, “A majority of the populace does support school prayer, so that in that case, the courts have stepped in and protected the rights of the minority” to be free from government establishment of religion...