Easthampton, Williston students set for history competition

By OWEN BOSS

Staff Writer

EASTHAMPTON - History students from Williston Northampton School and Easthampton High School will travel to Boston later this month to participate in a statewide U.S. history competition.

The We the People competition, organized by the Center for Civic Education, a federal nonprofit, is meant to enhance local students' understanding of the country's democratic institutions and the modern relevance of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Students from Williston have participated in the event since 1998 and finished in the top three places four times, including winning the honor of representing Massachusetts in the national finals in 2000. This year will mark the first time that Easthampton High has joined in.

Before leaving for Boston, the two schools will present their research on the Williston campus on Wednesday, Jan. 19. The showcase will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Dodge Room of the Reed Campus Center and individual hearings will occur in Reed 202 and 204 from 7 to 9 p.m.

Then, on Saturday, Jan. 29, students from both schools will travel to the John Joseph Moakley courthouse in Boston to compete against 12 other public and private schools from across the commonwealth.

Kelly Brown, a U.S. history teacher at EHS, said she has enjoyed working with the new textbooks associated with the curriculum this year and has seen a positive response from her students.

"I've been teaching AP History for 10 years, and I think this curriculum offers a really in-depth study of the Constitution, which will be incredibly helpful for my students and will be something that they can use for their entire study of American history," she said.

As part of the program, 25 EHS students and 36 from Williston, most of whom are juniors and seniors, will participate in a simulated congressional hearing in which students "testify" before a panel of judges. Students will be asked to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of constitutional principles and will have opportunities to evaluate, take, and defend positions on both historical and contemporary issues.

According to the Center's website, since the We the People program started in 1987, more than 28 million students and 90,000 educators have participated in the study. Several studies by the Educational Testing Service and Stanford University professor Richard Brody have shown that students who used the curriculum "significantly outperformed comparison students" on every topic studied, according to the site.

For more information about the competition, residents can visit the organization's web site, http://www.civiced.org.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.