2012 We The People: The Citizen and the Constitution Results

Ka`ahumanu Hale-First Circuit Court in Honolulu was bustling with activity on Saturday morning, February 4, 2012.

On that day the Hawaii high school state qualifying hearings were held as part of the annual We The People: The Citizen and the Constitution competition. Organized by State Coordinator Sandra Cashman, the event was sponsored by the Friends of the Hawaii Judiciary History Center and the Center for Civic Education.

For the third year Jeffrey Bingham Mead, NCHE Hawaii liaison and president of History Education Hawaii, served as a judge. Mead was paired with Robert Buss, executive director of the Hawai`i Council for the Humanities and Ret. Judge Gail C. Nakatani. Other judges included Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald of the Hawaii State Supreme Court, Dr. John Hart, professor at Hawaii Pacific University, Dr. Brian Richardson, professor at Windward Community College, and members of Hawai’i’s legal community.

We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution promotes civic competence and responsibility among the nation’s upper elementary and secondary students. The program enjoys the active participation of members of Congress, as well as support from educational, professional, business, and community organizations across the nation. Since the inception of the We the People program in 1987, more than 30 million students and 90,000 educators have participated in this innovative course of study.

The following schools sent competing teams: Kahuku High & Intermediate School, Kahuku (Jan Harney, teacher); Kealakehe High School, Kailua Kona, Hawaii Island (Ezra Witsman, teacher); Iolani School, Honolulu (Woodie Milks, teacher); Island Pacific Academy, Kapolei (Kori Shlachter, teacher). Two showcase teams from Hawaii Technology Academy, Waipahu (Collin Kennedy, teacher) and La`ie Elementary School, La`ie (Colleen Spring, teacher) also participated.

“Our team of judges,” Mead said, “chose to ask this challenging question: Although the states experimented with various models in writing their new constitutions, all of them included some basic principles. What were those basic principles and why were they important? How would you explain legislative supremacy and why did most states favor it? What ideas drawn from the natural rights philosophy were reflected in the new state constitution?”

The 2012 Hawaii winning team are from Kahuku High & Intermediate School (Jan Harney, teacher); Island Pacific Academy, Kapolei (Kori Shlachter, teacher); and Iolani School Team Red (Woodie Milks, teacher).

“On behalf of the National Council for History Education and my colleagues with History Education Hawaii I offer my congratulations to this years winners,” Mead said. “That includes the teachers who spent many hours helping these student teams prepare for this day. By being judged on understanding, constitutional application, reasoning and critical thinking, providing supporting evidence, responsiveness to challenging questions and active participation the importance of understanding the American Constitution was reinforced.”