Brown Co. Jr. High School (Nashville, Indiana) won the Indiana Bar Foundation’s state civic education competition for middle school students. More than 700 teens and pre-teens versed in the U.S. Constitution competed in the We The People State Finals December 13-15 in Indianapolis. The teams from these three schools scored highest by the panels of professional judges:
- Brown Co. Jr. High School, Nashville, Ind.
- Fishers Jr. High School, Fishers, Ind.
- St. Richards Episcopal, Indianapolis
“Two hundred thousand Indiana students have studied how to be good citizens through this educational model in the past 30 years,” said Charles R. Dunlap, executive director of the Indiana Bar Foundation (Foundation). “Indiana’s legal community is proud to bring this exemplary program to schools across the state.”
We The People is an educational model that teaches students in fifth, eighth and twelfth grades about the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. After a semester of study about American history and constitutional philosophy, current events and applicable court cases, students testify in mock congressional hearings before panels of volunteer judges from the legal community. Teams mastering their subjects compete regionally throughout Indiana and finally at one state competition.
The civic education model is one of the most effective for creating model citizens who vote at higher rates than their peers. The We The People educational model has been shown to increase civic participation, including voting rates, for students as they become adults. More details may be found on the Foundation’s web site www.inbf.org/.
About the Indiana Bar Foundation
The Foundation is dedicated to increasing access to justice and appreciation for the rule of law. It gathers and directs resources toward three main areas: assisting people who have difficulty accessing the justice system, providing civic education for Hoosiers of all ages and improving Indiana’s judicial system and the legal profession.
