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Battlefield group takes top spot at state civics competition
Joe Schelzo offered a simple explanation about why he brings teams to compete in the We The People civics event in Richmond year after year.
"We keep going back to it because I like it," said the government teacher at Battlefield High School.
He's not alone.
Schelzo and Wendy Scott of Oscar F. Smith High School in Chesapeake used to both teach at Brooke Point High School in Stafford and yet both were present with different schools at the state competition on Feb. 7 at the Patrick Henry Executive Office Building.
Somewhere along the line of a school year, students at schools like Battlefield have to do a project of some sort for their government class. Entering We The People is one way students can earn credit while also challenging themselves, their teammates and even instructors with formulating concise, well-thought-out answers to constitutional philosophy.
Each unit prepares written answers for three questions, two of which will be asked at the competition. They must be answered orally and then a discussion ensues where the students have to prove just how well they've mastered the material.
"I don't demand they memorize it like a theater script," Schelzo said.
But they do have to make eye contact with the judges and control their movements while concentrating on aspects of public speaking like voice inflection and body emphasis.
Preparing for the event is as much of a labor of love for students as it is for teachers. Sure, Schelzo offered class credit for those participating. But a competition like this is not catered to those who are looking for an easy A.
"Everyone who participated actually likes government," said senior Sarah Erbes.
She explained that for the competition, "First, we had to go over the whole unit we were doing and how the founders were figuring out opinions ... how they were going to form the constitution."
Hard work brought its rewards, however. Erbes and her senior classmates Kenny Heidel, Michael Hinkle, Ben Kia and Brian Lee won the Unit 2 portion of the program surrounding the question "How did the framers create the Constitution?"
Battlefield brought four groups that answered questions based on four out of six possible units. Because Battlefield did not field groups for all six units, the school as a whole finished sixth out of six schools.
Unit 2 shined, however, and others did well too.
Schelzo and Erbes credited the Unit 2 win to actual disagreements between students, not just manufactured ones where two people give opposing points of view for the sake of disagreeing. This played out with Unit 4 too.
Erbes said her group grappled with whether the Congress had more authority than the executive and was not exercising it or whether the president had become more powerful than Congress.
"I think it was just how we interpreted the different things we learned" that provided disagreements, she said.
Other groups featured even more dramatic emotions and arguments. A couple of the girls from Unit 4 were on the brink of vomiting due to nervousness before the event, Schelzo said, while he fretted others may end up scared silent in front of the judges.
Sure enough, some of the jitters did pan out.
"They ended up having to look at their paper a little more than they should and one of the judges mentioned it," said Schelzo of one of his groups.
Yet, by and large, the 18 students from Battlefield managed to shine.
"They did wonderful," he said, mentioning that Heather Miller and Louisa Proveda provided passionate defenses of their own positions against each other despite being in the same group.
"In fact, I thought two of the girls were going to have to be separated," said Schelzo.
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