The video takes viewers into the world of high school competitions, focusing on students preparing for the "We the People" competition. Students express their anxieties and determination to succeed while navigating personal and academic challenges. They balance rehearsals, deal with unexpected questions, and confront high-pressure situations to demonstrate their understanding of constitutional issues, both historically and in contemporary contexts.

Viewers are drawn into the personal journeys of these young individuals who hail from different backgrounds, highlighting the socio-economic and familial issues they face. The narrative showcases the students' resolve to overcome obstacles, pursue academic goals, and navigate the complex landscape of growing up, including college aspirations, family dynamics, and societal issues such as gun control and political activism.

Main takeaways from the video:

Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.

Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. hauler [ˈhɑːlər] - (noun) - A valley between two ridges in rural areas, often used colloquially in certain regions. - Synonyms: (ravine, gorge, valley)

This is a hauler. So it's between two ridges.

2. cross-examined [ˈkrɔːs-ɪɡˈzæmɪnd] - (verb) - To question a person thoroughly, often in a legal context to challenge their statements. - Synonyms: (interrogate, question closely, probe)

You had something prepared, you give your speech, and now you are basically cross examined.

3. demonizing [ˈdiːməˌnaɪzɪŋ] - (verb) - Portraying someone or something as evil or wicked, often unjustly. - Synonyms: (vilify, malign, stigmatize)

America has a history of demonizing ethnic groups as black people.

4. temperament [ˈtɛmpərəmənt] - (noun) - The nature or characteristic disposition of a person. - Synonyms: (disposition, character, nature)

Our base human temperaments necessitate the establishment of a constitutional, constitutional government.

5. partisan [ˈpɑːrtɪzæn] - (adjective) - Strongly supporting a specific party, cause, or person. - Synonyms: (biased, one-sided, partial)

The judiciary branch is seen as a nonpartisan, independent form of government.

6. filibuster [ˈfɪlɪˌbʌstər] - (noun) - A prolonged speech or debate made to delay or prevent a decision in a legislative assembly. - Synonyms: (stonewalling, obstruction, delaying tactic)

These days, due to the filibuster, all of the stuff that the House tries to pass gets locked up in the Senate.

7. undermine [ˌʌndərˈmaɪn] - (verb) - To weaken or damage something, often gradually or insidiously. - Synonyms: (sap, sabotage, erode)

This would definitely undermine the rule of law and decrease the trust of voters in our country.

8. intelligences [ɪnˈtɛlədʒənsɪz] - (noun) - The ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. - Synonyms: (capabilities, acumen, mental faculties)

You all have your intelligences, and I really want you to show that.

9. nuanced [ˈnuːɑːnst] - (adjective) - Having subtle differences in meaning, expression, or tone. - Synonyms: (subtle, refined, intricate)

But I will say that I think my viewpoints have become a little more nuanced now.

10. constitutional [ˌkɑːnstɪˈtuːʃənl] - (adjective) - Relating to the system of fundamental principles according to which a state is governed. - Synonyms: (charter-based, legal, lawful)

Our base human temperaments necessitate the establishment of a constitutional, constitutional government.

Competition Begins for America's Best Civics Students - Citizen Nation - Full Episode 2 of 4 - PBS

Izzy, Landon, Jayden. Layla is here. We're waiting on Zadeh. So the Holy Roman catholic empire. Neither holy, nor roman, nor catholic, nor an empire discussed this year. Definitely feels like it's going faster than it should. I turn 18 in March, and then I graduate in May. And I don't think I realized how close all these big things are together. I have been working with and mentoring to get them ready for the competition. But it's kind of like in theater. When you're the director and the show goes up, you're done. My students are ready. They're ready to go. We're like 30 minutes away. I just try to calm myself down. I try to think, you know, this. Don't overthink it. I really want to win.

Oh, my God. Still are here. I grew up on a farm right here in Tyler county. We have never moved, and we have a lot of woods around us. This is a hauler. So it's between two ridges. So that's a ridge line. And this is a ridge line. Even though they're not mountains, we'll still call it a hauler. Hi, black. Sistersville was a town founded in the oil boom. The oil and gas companies, they bought the rights to the land. It's pipeline, oil trucks. It's well sites, mineral rights, and that's an issue. It's a lot of traffic. The bridge, it is sank, like two inches from the trucks. It's not good for the environment, but we can't just rip it out from under us. We don't have a fallback, so it's not a great. It's raining down hotel oil and gasp. It's always been funding our county. They give the school the money off the tax returns, and they spend it on things like our football field. They redid all of our sports facilities. The field alone, I think, costed $9.5 million. We wouldn't have any of this without their funding.

Gentlemen, do you all have your ties? Did you get one? You got your tie? You got a tie, you got a tie. We are currently at the end of October and anxiously awaiting the district two competition here in West Virginia for we, the people. Why is this so intricate? This. This is our opening. Yep. Okay. That is your opening statement. This is. Questions? Yes. Okay. Last week, somebody said, we compete in a month. Became all just short circuited for a minute. Like, the whole classroom went silent. And we're like, oh, my God. We were freaking out. We're like, this can't be right. Right? And then we're like, nope, let's do that. He broke with the catholic church in the 1530. This whole thing here, why don't we take that out? We don't have, like, a whole lot of time, and I just feel like I'm underprepared. I think if you want to answer a question, hands go on the table. You're done. You take them off. Who's timing? Ready? Begin.

The people that are currently still afraid of a strong central government are usually scared of losing their states rights. Good. I don't want to mess it up. I don't want to be the one person whose fault it is that we didn't make it to states. Hey, everybody. Also, I got it. Right now, what I need you to do is focus on me. Yeah. A few reminders. Does anyone need a permission slip? Excellent. They're gonna come open. What? You told me, I said it. You still said throw it. Can I figure out how to do this instead of those notecards? Cause this will be just as challenging. Giving up on learning how gi. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. I just have to have a little bit of nicotine. I am trying to energize them, and rallying that kind of energy is. Is tough right now, because there is a lot going on, and some of them are not in a good area, not in a good mental space. And when you try to put more learning into a brain that already has an amygdala that is going 500 miles an hour, it's hard to calm that down and focus on the competition.

I want you all to remember one thing. You all have your intelligences, and I really want you to show that. I want you to show these judges how good you are. Your personalities must shine through. All of you. Got it? Do you need anything else from inside besides the eggs? I don't think so. Okay. I will be back.

What should I do? I live with my uncle Kerr and his girlfriend. They're three children, and they have another little boy on the way. He's had eight slices of bacon. I love bacon. I know. I love bacon. My mom moved up to Moundsville. There's more jobs in bigger places. I just finished out my school year here. My mom, I'm very close with, and it was really hard for her to move away because we're very dependent on each other. This is very, very personal. But when I was ten years old, my dad had gotten into a lot of trouble, and I had to be sat down. My mom explained to me that he had made some bad choices and that he is addicted to drugs. He was going to have to go away for a little while. We had my birthday moved up a month so I didn't have to see him go to jail. Then he missed my 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th birthday. I stepped up and helped my mom with my brother. By the time I was ten, I was doing my laundry all by myself. Twelve. I started paying my phone bill.

Today my dad lives 5 hours away and he works for a carpentry company. I was raised to be very independent. I am quite tasty by the fire. Everything's worn. My toes are also cold. Don't worry, mama. We got you. Mama. Aidan, do you know my dad dated your mom after high school? Bob Riggs. Did you know that my grandma dated Bob Riggs? Hasn't your grandma dating? Hey, hey. Pretty much everybody in my grade. You know them from the moment you were born. So I bet you your parents are friends and you go through elementary school, preschool, kindergarten, middle school, high school together. Then you graduate. And if you don't leave this area, you're gonna know them the rest of your life too.

I saw somebody drink the entire river water. They're gonna come out like, glowing. Oh, yeah. I don't even go on like, boats. You're gonna look like Leela. We were drinking tap water, but it tasted so bad. We just put Kool Aid stuff in it and drank it. Water went bad and I had been drinking it for weeks and nobody told me. That's why I don't get sick, guys. Yeah, I'm just built different. We connect through trauma, we have similar experiences. And it's nice being able to talk to somebody and being able to be vulnerable with them instead of having to have this, like, oh, I'm perfectly fine. It's nice to have someone that you can be like, yeah, I'm not doing so well.

I think in the United States and in other countries, there's a lot of people who are looking out for their own interests, who are looking out to improve their own financial situations. I try not to let all the issues that our world is facing right now eat away at me. I really want to be a lawyer someday and eventually a politician. Because politics to me is about finding the ways in which we can produce a better world.

Unit six, so these are your stands. You guys are official congressional experts? We're preparing for district now. And if we do well enough, we'll qualify for the state competition. And if we do well at state, we'll be lucky enough to go to Washington DC for the national competition. All right, everybody, I think we're ready to get started here. All rise. Today we're doing a dress rehearsal. We're gonna be having some pretty prominent figures in here, some people who have judged for we, the people.

Before. You can begin whenever you are ready. Our base human temperaments necessitate the establishment of a constitutional, constitutional government defined by the way this competition works. Is four minutes is going to be a prepared speech that we've been practicing for the last few months. A system that is of the people, by the people, and for the people. Former Attorney General William Barr used legal maneuvers to avoid pressing charges against them. You had something prepared, you give your speech, and now you are basically cross examined. What would you say to somebody that says, government doesn't listen or the government doesn't represent today's age? Many people feel that way. I can empathize with the idea that our voices are not being completely heard. And our hardest part of the hearings is definitely cross examination because there's no preparing for it.

Obviously, you can work up your content knowledge, but at the end of the day, you really never know what kinds of questions the judges are going to ask. Let's go, Israel and Palestine. What are your thoughts about the rules that are specifically being broken in this war? The judges asked a few questions about the Israel Palestine conflict, which I really think caught some of the units off guard we see with Palestine and Gaza. When President Joe Biden said that the israeli people beheaded for, I believe it was 40 clubs, like clubs in support of palestinian clubs in support of. If they receive a news article, alert the day of, they might ask you about it. So you're gonna have to give them the impression that you know what you're talking about, even if you're a little insecure about the topic. So you can't. You can't falter, guys, every single one of the Israeli Palestine conflict, what is happening? Brush up on that.

Just bring more current events to life. Practice, practice, practice, practice. Anyone who will listen to you, talk to them. Go over it, go over it, go over it. I was thinking about the other schools. Like, how much knowledge do they have? Are they having the same emotions as us? Like, are they also nervous? The idea of gridlock is perhaps the Senate doing its job too well. The Senate was intended to be the more deliberative body, but these days, due to the filibuster, all of the stuff that the House tries to pass gets locked up in the Senate and is unable to progress any further. I'd also like to elaborate that the existence of the filibuster incredibly demotivates compromise.

Are we the people team is one of the best in the nation. I think that's pretty universally agreed on. And so it's like, what if we don't win? Like, what if the other teams beat us and we're the ones who let down this multiple, decades long reputation of always winning? It's a lot of pressure. What you did wrong was you skipped the answer and then talked about the effect of the historical precedent. Kaden then immediately started with the answer to the question. So you guys adjusted well throughout the round. Make sure you know about, like, Tommy Tuberville and, like, unspoken. Oh, Caden. Also, your answer about the filibuster was good, but you could have answered in less words. Don't filibuster. In a thing about filibustering. Boyden, calm down.

One of the other states we're watching closely is Virginia, where the legislative race is in Virginia, November, democratic District 16. Democrats scattered. Von Valkenberg closely scrutinize across the country for hints of what might come in next year's 2024 presidential cycle. Hope you don't mind. I'm solving parts of your crossword. All of the easy ones are gone. Little wonder. Steve. Oh, Stevie Wonder. What's the plan today? Precincts all day and then see you at the. Hopefully at the victory party tonight. Yes. That will be with your sisters. So how about yourself? Vote and bring the sisters to the party. That's basically my whole day.

All right. Voting first time. Voting? Yes. How you feeling about it? You're voting for me, right? I haven't decided yet. Today is obviously the election day, but it's also my 18th birthday, which is cool. My birthday's on election day. Every six years. I was born on election day, turned six on election day, turned to twelve. On election day, 18, and presumably in the future, 24, 30, and all of those other birthdays that follow. I'm relieved that it's almost over.

Do you know who to vote for? For all the local races? Not all the candidates? No, not off the top of my head. You better check that before you go vote. Okay, duly noted. Okay, I will look it up. Good morning. You know, I am 18. I am now legally an adulthood, which means I have to handle a lot of things now that I didn't have to deal with before I get to vote for once. But it's a mixture of, like, excitement from, like, getting to vote, and also just kind of, like, kind of slight disappointment that my dad's not there for it. But, eh, expectation. It happens. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Have a good day.

How's it going, sir? Skyler van Valkenburg would love to earn your vote for state senate. Hey, love to earn your vote. Skyler. Democrats. Yep, you got it. How'd the doors been? How'd the doors been? We've spent the last year knocking on thousands upon thousands of doors and spending a lot of money on advertising. But at the end of the day, it's not in your hands, right? It's in the voters hands. Every race is tied. I've never seen races like this. Everything is tied. We have no idea what's going to happen. Yep. I am very nervous for my dad. I mean, it's stressful that he might not win, but we'll see.

So we do have some information that is coming in. In Senate District 16, Democrats, Heather von Valkenberg is the projected winner. Sure, it means I don't get to celebrate as much of my birthday on the actual day. But I don't blame him for having the election take priority because that's a thing that's much bigger in the grand scheme of things. Service knows that you can't do it without your family. I don't think they've seen me for a weekend in, like, a year. And so I get to have a weekend with them this weekend, and we get to celebrate. Victoria. Thousand box pizza, kids. Pepperoni roll. Okay. I will put that in for you. I'd give it probably about 40 minutes. Would you like a mountain dewdry sweet tea?

The sweet tea. I felt always very lost when anyone would ask me the question of, what are you gonna do when you grow up? Fogs pizza. In my sophomore year of high school, a girl in the weeb, the people class, said, you know, you would make a really good ob gyn. I said, why do you say that? And she said, you're just someone you could trust. And I said, I think I would love that 411. Oh, thank you. Matt, why don't you show your project? It's 23 38. This is two full weeks of work, and that's six shifts. So that's 18 hours. Yep. Same. Mine's 26. So 23 28 for 16 hours worth of work. 15. But that doesn't include tips. Yeah. I feel like my mom has made a huge sacrifice by raising us on our own, so I need to be something extraordinary.

I'm really looking forward to getting that higher education because it was exciting. No one in my family's really experienced that. My parents did not go to college. None of my grandparents went to college. It's very anxiety inducing, but it's definitely something I know that has to happen. Hi. Hi. How is the stress level right now? It's my stress level high. Why college? If it relates to college in some way, I'm stressed about it. FAFSA not gonna come out until, like, December 31. Makes me lose it. Makes me lose it. I'm gonna say not nice things about Fafsa. FAFSA is, like, top three stressors. Don't worry. We'll get there. I know it's kind of stressful if you're. I think many of them stay up late at night worried about college.

How am I gonna pay for it? And with FAFSA, the free application for federal student aid being pushed back to December of 2023, there's a lot of frayed nerves of where is my tuition money going to come from? Because they simply don't have it. I'm enrolled at WVU, and I contacted them and asked them if they would waive my fees because I could not pay out of pocket right now, and they said no. And they have a deadline of November to secure your spot. You had to pay those deposits fees of food passes, parking, and housing. It's going to be around $75,000 for six years of college. That doesn't seem like a crazy amount for six years of college, but in West Virginia's economy, it especially is very expensive.

Are you looking forward to the competition? Mixed feelings. Mixed feelings. Mixed feelings. I want to do really good, and I want to get to nationals, internationals, whatever the highest level. Like, I want to go all the way and do good, but I'm also like, I need a break. All right, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, let's practice as if we are really doing this thing. That is what rehearsal is. The judges walk in. Justices walk in. There you go. And no. The Philadelphia convention was called to order on May 25, 1787, to address the weak central government that existed under the articles of confederation. Even though we want to have an easy senior year, the only way we're going to get into the good colleges we want is if we take these higher level classes. But these classes are harder to maintain those good grades. We have to worry about keeping up with jobs. What college am I going to get into? What happens if I don't get into college?

There's just so much heavy stuff that you kind of just want to shut down. You just want to back off from it. As of right now, what keeps me up the most at night is what if I don't get into my program at WVU? It's a very competitive program. So if I don't get in, there's very few alternatives for me going into chiropractics. That's why I took so many college and AP classes this year, because in middle school during COVID I struggled a lot with my. Sorry, I struggle a lot with my grades. I end up having to do a day of summer school to get my spanish grade up to a d to pass. And at the time, I was like, it's whatever. They won't care about all my college transcript. But now I'm like, oh, my gosh, that has more impact than I thought it did. So I wish I could just go back and kick myself in the butt and be like, get it together. I have to make up for that. I have to show them how good I can do now so that they can see that I'll succeed in their programs.

I know they're struggling just like I'm struggling. We all have our crosses to bear. About a year ago, my mother got really sick and is now confined to a wheelchair. And my father got sick shortly after. I need to take care of them. Weighing that with my schoolwork, that can sometimes be tricky. Sometimes I don't feel like I've been the best teacher. I'm overwhelmed and I'm on the verge of burnout. And I probably won't be returning next year. So that is something not a lot of people know. As hard as it is going to be to step away from the classroom, I think I need to do it in order to become better. Hey, I did. I brought my pink. Whenever I asked Mister Shubaugh if the pink would be too much, you went, no, I love it. Show your personality. Yes. I'd wear a tie. My mom would never let me wear a tie. I know. You should. Oh, this is what I'm wearing for we, the people. Mister. She wore these. Appropriate. You think I can wear these? Wear them on the bus. I actually think I might bring them.

Joke. Where is it? Into the building. Other countries are not following this, and this just undermines the idea of implementing it at all. I would like to piggyback off of Naya and Jonathan. Ukraine wanted to be part of NATO because if they were part of NATO and Russia attacked them, then all the other allied forces of NATO would have to do something about the issue. But people delayed that way before the war started. And then close to when the war started, they were like, oh, we don't want to ratify you while you're in middle of war. And then, um, not really. Okay. Okay. I have to go. Wrap it up. Oh, God. Who are waiting for your sister is already asleep. Daddy. Chris, wake up. Yeah. Okay. Vicky. Vicky, take this. Give me that one. Okay. Here's red. I'm a little nervous. Why? Okay, well, nerves are expected, but. Got this. Slow down. Don't talk too fast. You already know what you're gonna say.

When Mister Giuliano told us to beef up on Israel Palestine, it just explained the conflict from a neutral point of view, which I do appreciate because a lot of people aren't willing to do that. In order for people to view Palestinians as anything other than terrorists, I think America needs to view them as a neutral party first. I don't think anybody's viewing them as just terrorists. They're saying amass. America has a history of demonizing ethnic groups as black people. We should know that. No? Yes. You can't lump everybody together. I didn't lump anyone together. So you're saying the US, us government or the us people? When I say us, I'm only ever referring to the government. If I want to say us people, I'll say us people.

Listen. In every analysis, you know what? I advise people. No, no, you're not advising people on anything. My dad as a lecturer and just as himself, he could go on for hours, literally, whenever we would get, like, in trouble when we were younger. We'd always end up laughing by the end of it when he was done with his lectures, because we were like, oh, my gosh, dad. Okay, it's been 2 hours. We get it, we get it. I understand your perspective. I'm just saying I have an entirely different perspective after two years of conclusive research. And that two years of research show you that the United States has a tendency to demonize ethnicities that they do not agree with. Yes. Wow. Things that make you go. But what I told my students is paint clear history. I did. Because every time I hear people say, Israel took the palestinian people's plants. Does Israel have claim to the land? No. They do, though they do not intertwine an entire city with their state. Did you not just tell me not to confuse the us government with the us people? You can't. Who is from the tribe of Jews? I'm telling you not to make is from Palestine. No. No more polish. This is a matter of anthropology.

No more debates. We all want to just decorate the tree and light it. Okay, let's light the tree. Vicky, you get the kitchen light. Make Elizabeth go back. Okay, turn it up, turn it off. Turn it up. 54321. Where's the other one? Where's the other light? Oh, my God. Where's the other light? Oh, it's going on. I would have said, oh, Chris. There's two things to plug in. One dog alive. Three, two, one. Merry Christmas. That is nice. Merry Christmas, 2023. It does. That looks nice.

911 emergency. How many shots have you heard? Like five. I'm hiding under my desk. I closed my door. It's locked. Have you heard anything else before or after? I heard some screaming. Okay. Who else is in the office with you? It's just me. My boss is working from home. Open door to my right. Open door to my left. Breaking news out of Las Vegas. Police say they are responding to reports of an active shooter on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. To avoid the area, avoid the area of the University of Las Vegas campus. We're going to bring you more information as it comes in a tweet to students saying, quote, this is not a test run, hide fight.

We're learning more about the shooter who killed three people and injured one yesterday. We will expect to hear more from police in just a couple of hours. Just about 90 minutes from now, you'll watch it here, live on NBC News. Now, more than any year in history. That's what I'm saying. In just a couple of hours, just going, my family called me, like three times. They were like, hey, there's been a shooting at UNLV. I was like, oh, my God. Well, is dad okay? I'm like, no, no, no, dad's okay. He canceled class. He's not in class. But it was just very eerie because we had another mass shooting at a concert in Vegas, and it was like one of the biggest.

Everybody is desensitized because it always happens. So what's the point about talking about it? Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dearison. Happy birthday to you. You wanna vote? Make you wish, 18 year old boy. I try to be optimistic for the future of the country, but when things like these happen, especially when they're so close to my community, it's difficult for me at times. You don't ever think, wow, that happened to me until it actually does. When I was in middle school, I used to be more of a gun, right? Absolutist, I think. I wrote a paper in 7th grade advocating for Americans to own automatic firearms. But I will say that I think my viewpoints have become a little more nuanced now. Not that I've jumped over to the other side, but seeing things like this make me evaluate my position a little bit more.

When the district competition happens. I think it's going to be tough because I feel like the judges might ask us to take a position on it, which could be pretty difficult. Gabriel. To the night that her flag was still there o say, does the star Spangle bend her yellow? O'er the land of the fruit and a home of the breath order colors. So students remember deep breaths throughout the day. Breathing relaxes your shoulders and helps you to know the answers, because you know all of this. So please go forth and enjoy the day.

Thank you all very much. Ready to crush this? Like, you being yourself is going to be amazing. Okay? You are prepared. You have the right attitude. You guys are awesome and amazing, so just go with it. I feel just nervous. It's just dread and nervousness. I just want to make sure that all the hard work that I've put in, it was worth it. There are lots of good schools here today, but our main competition is canyon Springs. No matter how we do, you remember this for the rest of your life, they have the same level of passion as us, and so we just gotta go that extra mile.

Each school has six units. The judges score each unit, and then all the points are added up to see who wins. Please have a seat, everybody. We're delighted to be here with Southwest career Technical Academy. Could you focus for me a little bit on what protects the independence of the judiciary under our constitution? It is scary going first, because you're like, oh, my gosh. You're just scrambling to get an answer out. The judiciary branch is seen as a nonpartisan, independent form of government, although that sometimes is slightly disregarded. The landmark court case Marbury v. Madison established. The judiciary plays a large branch. The judiciary branch plays a large role in all future cases.

We are all working towards the same goal, and we literally share our points. You know, somebody else's failure is our failure as well, and somebody else's success is our success. It's just a matter of not even who tried the hardest, but who. How did the judges perceive it? How did the judges perceive it? Are we ready? Do you think that law enforcement should be given certain latitude with respect to fourth amendment issues? During this week, there was a mass shooting at UNLV, and I feel like government officials, like police, they should have a bit more power for the safety of their students and of the community overall.

You guys all look so lovely. Having my dad at the competition was a lot of pressure because I really want to show him everything I know, but you really never know what kinds of questions the judges are going to ask. Let me ask you this. Has the power of judicial review gone too far and been too unrestrained? The power of judicial review has gone too far. We have reached a point in our country where supreme court justices interpretations of the Constitution tend to align with their political ideology. This is completely contradictory to the original intention of the framers under the constitution. Do you believe that the president should be able to pardon himself and or his family members as part of part of that power? Absolutely not. While there is no explicitly stated wording in the constitution, this definitely undermines the original intentions of the founders when creating that presidential power. This would definitely undermine the rule of law and decrease the trust of voters in our country.

Thank you all. Oh, my goodness. Give your hands. Wow. Incredible job, you guys. You have all these really awesome moments, but you never see your competition. So we can get really excited that we're doing well, but we don't really know how many of those moments other teams are having. All right, everybody, hands in the air. Hands in the air. Whether the weather is cold, whether the weather is cold or whether the weather is hot. Whether the weather is hot. We'll be together, whatever the weather. We'll be together, whatever the weather, whether we like it or nothing. Whether we like it or not. Yay.

Quietly. This is a really wonderful law school, and it's really wonderful that we get to be part of this experience. What's this? High school? And you're? Robert C. Bird. Robert C. Bird. Okay. Okay. We're competing in Robert C. Birdhouse. They have kicked our butt every single year. Okay, unit two, you guys are up. You want to go ahead and get in place, guys? I'm actively peeing my pants right now. Guys. What if I puke? I ask you to puke on me. All right, be seated.

Were there any historical events that influenced Brutus? I and federalist x regarding factions? For me, anxiety and nervousness does not set in until I am sitting in the chair, standing on the stage. I'm gonna mess up our time limit. I'm gonna look like an idiot. Did you repeat the question, please? Yeah. Were there any significant historical events that influenced the views presented in Brutus? One. I get nervous kicking myself that I should have gone over this more or that more. You basically are watching them get groped. So I felt, like, really bad when they were in the hot seat. How does the concept of freedom of association relate to this concept of factionalism? Mister Shubaugh said he's like, you're freaking out now, but once they ask you, you'll know what to say I got this freedom of association with that. It means we're allowed to associate with our freedom of assembly. We are allowed to form these factions.

An example of this today would be personal privacy. In today's society, our factions or special interest groups generally considered beneficial. Faction or interest group currently is those who are supportive of gun control. Are there any enduring lessons or insights from Brutus? Brutus ten speak of how Congress should not be as they fear that that will take away from the individual. Take a look into our personal lives. Forming the political parties we have today, and then adversely they can form contradictory groups. You can finish yourself. Contradictory groups that harmed our federal institutions in the past. Some comments wonderful job, you guys. Isabella, that was insane. All of them did really well. I was really proud of all of them that went.

But I am, like, nervous because Robert Seaberg is infamous for being the winner for like the last five years. So I think the protestant reformation started the process, albeit very slowly, or other court cases. And then they should have their own world perspective. Outside of that, I think everyone should have the equal opportunity to get the same education. And I think the constitution needs to protect that. You may be seated. Can you provide an example of a provision in an international constitution that you think that the United States should consider adopting? Well, I'm not familiar on other parts of the world and their particular government. As someone who believes in women's rights, I feel like in the last year, it's been a hot topic of Roe v. Wade. We have had not only a human right taken away from us, but an individual right. And I think when we get.

I know many women in my life who have had abortions, and they're the strongest women I know. And to take away that option, if they wouldn't have had those, they wouldn't have been where they are today. When it comes to we, the people in this competition, the thing that they will bring is their life experience. I don't want anyone to tell Layla Williamson human rights don't matter, because she will tell you human rights matter. I'm very proud to be from a country where my rights are reflected in my power to vote.

Deep breath. Well done. You did a nice job, and it was nice to personalize your answers and how it impacts you. I feel very well educated by you delightful young ladies. Thank you. We're going to put five more minutes on the clock, and we're going to do some more questions because we enjoyed it so much. Well done. I just must say to you, you can't let this be some classroom activity with all the knowledge that you have, with the brainpower that you have, please continue to use those leadership skills in your school and in your community and in our state. We wish you the very best then. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to stage. I hope so. Yeah.

For Iris. Well, we won't hesitate any longer. The we, the people, the citizen, and the constitution. First place in unit six, congressional district two goes to Tyler county consultant. First place for unit five goes to Robert C. Byrd High School. First place for unit four, Robert C. Byrd. Robert c. Byrd. Robert c. Byrd. The district two champion for the we, the people in the citizen constitution goes to Robert C. Byrne High School. Congratulations. Congratulations, guys. Congratulations.

We'll see. I felt disappointed in myself because I felt kind of so good and I just felt short, but I'm doing things I didn't think I was capable of. It kind of just. It makes me a little more proud of myself. Just because we didn't win a trophy doesn't mean we didn't win the day. Yay. I'm more concerned that 20 of my best students show the world that they know how our government works, how to be an active participant, and how to be a good human being. I'm one of the people who did not know the three branches of government. Like, did not know any of the amendments. I did not know who our senators were. I just. I've always kind of steer clear of politics, and this has kind of shone a light, like, wow. As an american, I need to know a lot more about what's going on in my government, and it has definitely convinced me I need to vote.

Whatever happens in there, hold your head high, okay? You guys did something special today. All right? I'm proud of you. Your parents are proud of you, okay? And, you know, all these judges were impressed by you. All right? So there was only, like, five points difference between first place and 6th place, but that tells you how close it was. So you were all phenomenal. All righty, the qualifying team, first place, southwest. Congratulations, man. You guys. You guys earned it, right? This is a result of hard work from August to now. So now we take this momentum and see how far we can get. Night.

Education, Inspiration, Politics, We The People, Student Competition, High School Challenges, Pbs