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MIKE THOMAS (TEACHER): I wouldn’t say I’m creating patriots or revolutionaries. I just want to create better citizens. But when it comes to this competition, everybody wants to win. And that’s just the way it is.

TEXT ON SCREEN:

Each year, high schools across America compete in a civics competition. It’s called We the People

ETHAN: It’s a mock hearing style event in which competitors showcase their constitutional knowledge.

JUDGE: We’re looking forward to an engaging discussion this afternoon.

MIKE THOMAS: And the judges grade the student performance.

JUDGE: Did the framers anticipate technology?

ETHAN: And the winners will go to a national tournament.

TEXT ON SCREEN:

There will only be one champion.

DONNA PHILLIPS (TEACHER): I know you all have spent hours and hours reading and debating.

COACH: You’ve gone through the gauntlet. You’ve been through an odyssey that would make Homer wilt.

DONNA  PHILLIPS: You’re able to immerse yourself in a level of competition that rivals the Super Bowl.

ELIAS: We worked hard on this.

STUDENT: You feel the adrenaline. You don’t know what the judge is going to say.

RANIA: Winning would honestly make my life whole.

DONNA PHILLIPS: And now it is showtime.

TITLE CARD:

A RETRO REPORT SERIES: CITIZEN NATION

TEXT ON SCREEN:

WYOMING

ERIN LINDT (TEACHER, WITH HER HORSE): Hey. Back it up.

ERIN LINDT: They always say that Wyoming is one big small town. Everyone knows each other, which is something that I kind of enjoy because I like those close and personal interactions.

ERIN LINDT (WITH HER HORSE): All done.

ERIN LINDT: You know, there’s a rancher mentality of hard work. . .

ERIN LINDT (WITH HER HORSE): Come on! I know…

ERIN LINDT:. . . Taking care of one another. Ensuring that everyone has what they need.

TEXT ON SCREEN:

CHEYENNE

ERIN LINDT: But I don’t think we’re at a place like that anymore. Because we’re unwilling to compromise right now. Which is troubling to me because I just think that differing of opinions creates better governance. And we’re starting to move away from that and become not as connected.

TEXT ON SCREEN:

SEPTEMBER 

THE FIRST MONTH OF SCHOOL

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Okay. We the People right here. You guys want to drumroll me? Just joking, you already know your units. Okay. Oh, but you guys did that well. Okay so let’s go ahead and get rolling. Get in your units and ready, go! Move.

ERIN LINDT: I truly believe that a teacher has more influence on a kid than their parents at this stage because they are starting to figure out who they are.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Okay. The first thing I want you guys to talk about. Do you want a captain? If so, maybe who would be your person? What do you guys think?

STUDENT: I feel like we don’t need a team captain.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Democracy!

ERIN LINDT: When you have somebody who comes into your life and they’re not a parent, but they are some sort of authority figure, I think when they’re in this really crucial time of figuring out what do I believe? Where’s my place in the world? I think we have an immense amount of influence.

ELIAS (STUDENT): Hey. Why didn’t the skeleton go to the dance?

STUDENT: Why?

STUDENT: He had no, wait. He had no body to.

ELIAS: He didn’t have the guts to do it. Why’d the cookie go to the doctor? Because he was feeling crummy.

STUDENT: Do your quiz!

ELIAS: My full name is Elias Joeseph Kash Blaize Wallace. I am all about the Revolutionary War, the Bill of Rights. Knowing your laws, your state laws, because you got to be well informed if you want to live in this country.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Elias?

ELIAS: Yeah!

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Let’s just kind of talk about who the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists were to give you guys an idea. So the Federalists, they wanted a strong national government. The anti-federalists, you guys—

ERIN LINDT: South High School. I think we have a fairly negative perception in our town. In the state of Wyoming we’re rated like the worst high school. I’ve had kids who have kindergarten reading levels, kids with substantial emotional, language barriers.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Two. The Constitution is already a protection of your rights.

STUDENT: Mario isn’t even here.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): No, Mario’s gonna be here. We know he’ll be late, but he’ll be here.

ERIN LINDT: But my kids have experienced life. They’ve had to overcome a lot of adversity.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Hello Mario! Wow, yeah! Look at the shirt. Okay. Yeah. Mario, this is your team. Okay. So, Mario, I just handed out them, their questions.

ERIN LINDT: Mario is very turned off by school.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Every, every unit is going to prepare three essays.

ERIN LINDT): So he came to my class the first day of school and then went M.I.A. for about two and a half weeks, and I went and sought him out in another class. And I was like, hey, I’m gonna see you at class next time, right? He’s like, yeah, I’ll be there in the morning. And I’m like, okay. And then he wasn’t. So I was like, I have to get more creative. I have to find a way to get this kid to come to school.

MARIO: Mrs. Lindt’s a nice person. I mean, she got me the shirt because I kept skipping class.

ERIN LINDT: My thing that I like to do is when kids do something ridiculous, I make a shirt out of them.

MARIO: And it says everything’s better together on the front. And on the back it has a picture of me, just like the picture right here.

ERIN LINDT: The back had a picture of Mario and it said, If found, please return to A106, which is my classroom. And the second he heard about the shirt, he shows up to class.

MARIO: I mean, I think she was trying to shame me with it, but I thought it was really funny, so I just started showing up.

ERIN LINDT: He’s late every day. I don’t care. He’s still here. He loves to learn. He hates education. He’s a voracious reader and he’s just so, so brilliant.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): There’s something that’s going to happen in this class, it happens in no other class. You’re going to rise to the occasion because other people are—

ERIN LINDT: I feel as if my students are perpetually always fighting this reputation of what people think of the south side and our kids. But the second you step in here, we take care of each other because we’re the underdogs.

MARIO: Oh.

ERIN LINDT:  I tell my students all the time. This is the most important class you will ever take in your high school career because you need to know your rights. You need to know if there is an issue, how to solve a problem. I think our world is headed in a really scary direction, and my generation has shown that they’re not going to solve it. But we can get the next generation to. I really like empowering kids. And I like fighting for the underdogs. So…

TEXT ON SCREEN:

SHERIDAN (home of South High School’s biggest rival)

MIKE THOMAS (TEACHER): In Wyoming, we have something called cowboy ethics. When you make a promise, do it. Keep your word. Or if you say that you’re going to commit to something, commit to it. There’s no testing the water. It’s like jump in and just do it.

MIKE’S SON (WHILE HUNTING WITH HIS FATHER): Let him go?

MIKE THOMAS: Yeah. Let him go!  Come on.  Come here.

MIKE’S SON: Go!

MIKE THOMAS: Timber. Get the bird!

MIKE THOMAS: We take hunting very seriously around here.

MIKE’S SON: Good boy Timber!

MIKE THOMAS: Such a pretty bird.

MIKE’S SON: Yeah.

MIKE THOMAS: My freezers are full of wild meat. I have six kids. It makes it way easier to feed them.

MIKE THOMAS (PRAYING BEFORE A MEAL WITH HIS FAMILY): The Holy Spirit.  Amen.

MIKE THOMAS (PLAYING FOOTBALL WITH HIS CHILDREN): Ready, hut!

MIKE THOMAS: We hear all the time about polarization being kind of the downfall of our society, at least right now. But I’m not so sure I buy completely into that.

MIKE THOMAS (SAYING GOODBYE TO HIS FAMILY): I’ll see you when I get home.

MIKE THOMAS: The way that I feel about this country is we’ve got serious issues and I think we need serious people to tackle those issues.

TEXT ON SCREEN:

SHERIDAN HIGH SCHOOL

MIKE THOMAS: Sheridan High School has a great reputation. It’s one of the best in the state. Our music program is excellent. Our football program is excellent.

MIKE THOMAS (SPEAKING IN THE HIGH SCHOOL AUDITORIUM): All right, let’s go. Just a quick background for those of you who aren’t familiar with Sheridan High School’s We the People team. Since 2009, Sheridan High School has won ten state championships and three national awards at the National Competition in Washington, D.C.  Brooke, are you here?

MIKE THOMAS (IN THE CLASSROOM): Jacob? Eva, Katie, Susie, Jackson.

MIKE THOMAS: Most of the students that take AP government with We the People are some of our highest academic achievers. I’ve had kids that have been the valedictorian. I’ve had kids that have gone on to Columbia and Stanford and Harvard.

MIKE THOMAS (IN THE CLASSROOM): Okay, so here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to tell you where you’re going to go, and then I’m going to come by each one of your groups and we’re going to talk through how you do this. Capisce?

STUDENTS: Caposce!

MIKE THOMAS (IN THE CLASSROOM): Thank you!

MIKE THOMAS: In 1987, the We the People Program started. We were in the 200th anniversary of the Constitution, and there was a bipartisan effort to basically inject civic education back into American schools.

ARCHIVAL( WTP):
NEWS REPORT: We cannot destroy property or infringe on others’ rights.

MIKE THOMAS: And so the program has been running from 1987 until now.

MIKE THOMAS (IN THE CLASSROOM): How’s everybody doing?

STUDENTS: Pretty good.

MIKE THOMAS (IN THE CLASSROOM): You ready to tackle this?

MIKE THOMAS: The competition, in a nutshell, it boils down to a mock congressional hearing. We’ve all seen on C-SPAN or news outlets people testifying in front of Congress on whatever issue. It could be immigration, health care, abortion, guns, whatever. And you see the panel of Senators or Representatives. And then you see the witnesses. That’s really what we’re trying to create.

ARCHIVAL (C-SPAN):
HEARING: Call this hearing to order. . .

MIKE THOMAS (IN THE CLASSROOM): Yes, it’s a daunting task. But remember, you’re not testing the water. . .

STUDENTS: You’re jumping. . .

MIKE THOMAS (IN THE CLASSROOM): Thank you! You’re jumping right in!

MIKE THOMAS: The rules of the competition are, first, students have 4 minutes to read an oral argument.

MIKE THOMAS (IN THE CLASSROOM): Are we figuring this out, or what? Okay, Remember, you just got to jump in the water.

MIKE THOMAS: And then they get grilled in a question and answer session, just like members of Congress grill witnesses to get information.

ARCHIVAL (C-SPAN):
SENATOR MARSHA BLACKBURN: To correct the wrongs. . . 

ARCHIVAL (C-SPAN):
WITNESS: No. . . 

ARCHIVAL (C-SPAN):
SENATOR CORY BOOKER: You can imagine the need for something like that, correct?

MIKE THOMAS (IN THE CLASSROOM): It’s got to be a coherent train of thought in your essay. But then in the Q&A, you can disagree. You don’t all have to agree with that.

MIKE THOMAS There is no right answer to a lot of these topics. The judges don’t care what you say or how you say it or what your positions are. They just want you to be able to think for yourself and to be able to critically look at both sides of an issue and then make your own judgments.

MIKE THOMAS (IN THE CLASSROOM): And they’re basically saying what the Second Amendment is based on history, right? Individuals have the right to keep and bear arms. So should we have the right to keep and bear arms today?

MIKE THOMAS: A lot of the students come in with preconceived notions of like, what they think they are. And then when we talk about it and they look at it and they learn a little bit more, they’re like, maybe I’m not this or that. Maybe I’m more like, in the middle.

MIKE THOMAS (IN THE CLASSROOM): It’s going to take time. You’ll get there. Have a great day. I’ll see you folks tomorrow.

TEXT ON SCREEN:

CHEYENNE

COACH (COUNTING AS ELIAS DOES PUSH UPS): 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. Keep it going.

ELIAS: I don’t like Sheridan.

COACH: 33. 34.

ELIAS: I describe everybody who doesn’t go to South as just entitled rich kids. It’s because we live on the kind of poor side of town here.

COACH: Yeah, all the way up. Oh yeah. Thousand.

R.O.T.C. KIDS: One.

COACH: Thousand.

R.O.T.C. KIDS: Two.

ELIAS: I’ve lived here in Cheyenne my whole life. Politically I’m more conservative, because that’s what my parents, my grandparents think.

After I graduate, I plan on joining the Air Force. I’m really adamant about it because I’m not going to be able to pay for college otherwise.

I love talking to people. People are awesome. I love humanity and how we can accomplish amazing things when we put our minds together, but we can’t really do that anymore because everyone just wants to fight with each other.

People nowadays don’t sit down and talk. We don’t actually listen to each other. Instead we just say no, no, no, you’re wrong. We don’t say – here’s why. Because that’s the best question we can ask, ever, is why not? I feel that if we communicate, life would be a whole lot better for everyone.

ELIAS (TO HIS FATHER): Hi.

MATTHEW WALLACE: I’m checking the pie right now. Oh yeah, done pie.

ELIAS: You’re doing Thanksgiving early.

MATTHEW WALLACE (PLAYING CHESS): Yep.  Cheaters never prosper.

ELIAS: No they don’t.

MATTHEW WALLACE: How’s R.O.T.C. going for you?

ELIAS: It’s going amazing. I’m, I’m really liking it.

ELIAS: My father is the hardest working individual that I know. He works on HVAC systems. He’s been doing it for years. He’s actually got his master’s card a little bit ago, so you, you know he’s good at his job.

MATTHEW WALLACE: Oh, shoot, my rice is gonna burn.

ELIAS: My parents got divorced. My mom and dad, years, years ago, and my dad’s pretty much been my primary caregiver.

MATTHEW WALLACE: I’ve been a single dad since Elias was like 5. I’m a construction worker guy that, that divorced, friggin’ single divorced construction work guy, two kids, I am still paying on my truck. It doesn’t mean that I’m not happy with where I’m at. I mean, not everybody can be on top.

MATTHEW WALLACE: What else you’ve been doing in school?

ELIAS: So in We the People, first question – we have sets of questions that we do, my question set is the first question that we were doing – was on gun laws. The part I was on because we do it as a group of people. It’s on, uh, gun laws.

MATTHEW WALLACE: One of the biggest values of this class is the amount of information that they’re giving him about our rights. It’s things that open my eyes. It’s like, dude, I didn’t really realize that’s how that that’s really working. And then he has me like – I’m on the internet. Was he right? Dude!

ELIAS: Try and distract me.

MATTHEW WALLACE: Do you know what party or if, like, independent, or do you think you’re Republican?

ELIAS: Libertarian.

MATTHEW WALLACE: Libertarian? You ain’t trying to live in the woods. Check.

ELIAS: I ain’t trying to live in the woods, but I feel like a lot of the things that they say is like, government get off my back. But on certain things that I feel like I have changed my mind on a lot more liberally than, say, conservative.

MATTHEW WALLACE: I don’t know what I am now. All I know is that in four years I’m movin’ out to the woods and I’m gonna live in a log cabin and all of society can just leave me alone because I’m so fed up.

ELIAS: You want to go back to caveman times?

MATTHEW WALLACE: Yep.

ELIAS: I think that you form your views from the upbringing where you are. It’s kind of like a nature versus nurture thing.

ELIAS (WALKING WITH HIS FAMILY AND THEIR DOG): Hey.

MATTHEW WALLACE: Slow down.

ELIAS’S SISTER: Bully, no.

MATTHEW WALLACE: Bully! I didn’t know, dude, like, you felt you’re a libertarian.

ELIAS: Is that what you think?

ELIAS’S SISTER: I think that, friggin’, the government can leave me alone so I can go out into the woods and be a bear.

ELIAS: I want to be left alone, but, um, I just want them to pay for my college.

MATTHEW WALLACE: I’ll tell you this much, you don’t get anything you don’t earn.

TEXT ON SCREEN:

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA

SOUTHWEST CAREER AND TECHNICAL ACADEMY

LOUDSPEAKER ANNOUNCEMENT: Good morning Coyotes! Homecoming spirit week is upon us! This year’s homecoming theme is Night in Neverland.

ELI (SPEAKING TO HER FRIENDS): What are you doing for homecoming?

SOPHIA: So, me and my friends are planning on going to, like, the strip and like walking around and then like eating, at Din Tai Fung.

ELI: We might be going to BJ’s OR the strip.

SOPHIA: Bro the Pizookies at BJ’s go crazy.

ELI: Really?

SOPHIA: Have you never had their Pizookies?

ELI: I’ve never been there!

SOPHIA: Girl they’re so good!

ELI: What’s in it?

ELI: I grew up in a very political household. So instead of having cartoons on, the news was constantly on. And the news is still constantly on because I watch it as well. And I’ve just learned that I really like debating politics and I like to give speeches on it and I like to discuss it. So I’m always prepared for any topic.

ELI (SPEAKING TO HER FRIENDS): I’m really excited for homecoming, I think it’s because it’s our last one. Hi Davi! We were just talking about our homecoming plans. Hanna, are you going to the We the People thingie?

HANNA: Nah. I have open fifth and seventh.

SOPHIA: We were talking about homecoming, are you going?

HANNA: Yeah, I’m going.

JOE JULIANO (TEACHER): Southwest CTA is a very diverse school. A lot of my students are first generation immigrants coming from working or middle class families that really care and see education as, like, a path to a better future, that whole idea of the American Dream.

HANNA: You’re not?

ELI: Why?

SYDNIE: I was gonna go, but they were like you haven’t paid all your bill credit fees, so I couldn’t get a ticket.

ETHAN: This high school, Southwest CTA, it was literally my dream school. I’ve been living in the Las Vegas area for my entire life. I really love my state. Nevada is kind of, like, the last frontier of the Wild West. And I think that speaks to the real idea of freedom that I believe in.

JOE JULIANO (IN THE CLASSROOM): So I’ll review a few things about how this works. You’re an expert testifying to congress about the Constitution. So you are taking positions. Right, like you want to have conviction. You want to have passion, right? Don’t be afraid. Because I’ve had groups where judges have said, like, I wish you showed yourselves a little more in terms of what you think and what you care about.

STUDENT: You guys could bring up, like, how your parents are immigrants and like how they got here for better opportunities.

ELI: For all of us, all our parents are immigrants. Especially when you grow up in an immigrant home and like you’re the only one in your entire community who’s there.

HANNA: I am actually from the Philippines. I lived there for 12 years of my life.

OZUHAKACHI: I’m from Nigeria. I came here 2019.

SOPHIA: My parents did come from Mexico, and I know all the like hardships that they have to go through even still today.

ELI: I’m Nigerian and like growing up, I think the first language I learned was Yoruba. And then, I didn’t know English until I had to go to school for English. My mom and dad, they’ve shown me things that I probably couldn’t learn from just typical American experiences.

JOE JULIANO (IN THE CLASSROOM): Yeah, and that’s all really relevant great stuff…like the immigration thing is a great idea. So yes, personal experience works. Any other thoughts on how you might bring it in?

ETHAN: Growing up in Las Vegas, people call it Sin City for a reason. But if it weren’t for that tourism industry, then I wouldn’t be in a good economic situation because my entire family is employed in the casino industry, right?

KANLAYA PETCHAMRAS (ETHAN’S MOTHER): How are you doing Ethan? Brush your teeth today?

ETHAN: Uh yeah. This morning.

KANLAYA PETCHAMRAS: Okay. Good boy.

ETHAN: My mom is an immigrant from Thailand. She’s a dealer. She deals table games at MGM Grand. My dad is from Virginia. He is a shift manager at New York, New York.

ETHAN (SPEAKING TO HIS MOTHER): Can you just hold it out like that so it’s tight?

ETHAN: English is not my mom’s first language, and I never really learned how to speak Thai.

KANLAYA PETCHAMRAS: You need help?

ETHAN: Yes.

ETHAN: I would say that I identify more with my mom more on, like a motherly love basis. Like, we’re here to support each other and love each other absolutely. But when it comes to, you know, things like my academic life, I’m not able to connect with her through that space as much.

ERIC BULL (FATHER, SHOWING ETHAN A PHOTO ALBUM): So that’s a traditional Thai outfit. There we are on the water.

ETHAN: But the relationship is different in my dad. I feel like I connect with my dad through all sorts of different facets.

ERIC BULL (SPEAKING TO ETHAN): That’s up in the mountains north of San Diego.

ERIC BULL: Ethan, he’s got a real work ethic. He’s an independent thinker. I mean it’s just very impressive. Some of the things that he’s been able to accomplish at his age. I don’t know. I feel like I’m unnecessarily bragging about him.

ERIC BULL: There we are up at the top.

ETHAN: I feel like as I’ve moved through life, I’ve become a little more disconnected with my mom’s heritage. I’m like really regretful that I never learned how to speak Thai.

ERIC BULL: That’s very pretty.

ETHAN: Sometimes when it’s difficult to connect with my mom, I feel like I’m missing a piece of my character.

ERIC BULL: People really don’t want to, they don’t want to look beneath the surface. You know they’ve got their worldview and they’ve got their group of people and, that’s the real thing that’s happened.

ETHAN: People around the country have just become more extreme.

ERIC BULL: Yeah. I think more extreme on both sides, right. On left and the right. And more intolerant. Just of any kind of different viewpoint.

ETHAN: Our We the People class is primarily left leaning. So as somebody who tends to lean more center right, I would say that I’m definitely an intellectual minority in the class.

ETHAN (SPEAKING TO HIS FATHER): You know the district competition is happening right after my birthday. The day after.

ERIC BULL: The day after your birthday?

ETHAN: Yeah.

ETHAN: Not that we’re not all friends, but you know I feel like lonely sometimes. At times I do feel like I’m on an island.

JOE JULIANO (IN THE CLASSROOM): Alright, good morning everybody.

STUDENTS: Good morning.

JOE JULIANO (IN THE CLASSROOM): So, we’re going to try to pack a lot in today.

ETHAN: I have this problem a lot where I’m not as confident in myself as I should be.

JOE JULIANO (IN THE CLASSROOM): So what do people say here? Ethan?

ETHAN (IN THE CLASSROOM): This is basically just another mechanism in which tyranny of the majority can flourish, right? Because if you just need…

ETHAN: I think just for being more ideologically right leaning it can be easy to reject somebody’s entire philosophical or political basis, right? Like you know, this guy’s bad, he’s the villain.

ETHAN (IN THE CLASSROOM): So more populous states…

ETHAN: So I try to be excellent in my personal character. To kind of debunk that myth.

ETHAN (IN THE CLASSROOM): So that’s basically just a legal mechanism that bigger states can use to enforce their will on the smaller states.

JOE JULIANO (IN THE CLASSROOM): Good. Eli.

ELI: As much as I would like to say that the idea that a republican government is based on a small group. A lot of these small groups were very bitter. We can see this from Elbridge Gerry of Massachusetts.

ETHAN: I think I would say our strongest competitor in the class is definitely Eli.

ELI: He sounds angry and upset that his…

ETHAN: And though she tends to disagree with a lot of my positions personally, I appreciate that she never lets someone off the hook. Like she, she’ll always give them something to argue with, which I think is definitely a good thing. And it keeps everybody on their toes, right?

JOE JULIANO (IN THE CLASSROOM): Okay, Ethan?

ETHAN (IN THE CLASSROOM): The judicial branch needs to be an isolated vacuum that is not perverted by a political will at any point.

ETHAN: I’m looking forward to competing this year and finding my own self-confidence again and maybe proving to myself once and for all that I can do something great if I put my mind to it.

ELI (SPEAKING TO HER FATHER): Can I use “we” in this essay?

VICTOR FAKOYA (ELI’S FATHER): What do you mean “we”?

ELI: As in “In this essay, we will analyze lyrics and delve into the cultural. . .”

VICTOR FAKOYA: No, you cannot. No, better to just say “this essay examines or analyzes.”

ELI: Oh!

VICTOR FAKOYA: By that you are not personalizing anything.

ELI: Using it as a focal point to examine. . .

ELI: My dad is absolutely brilliant. He’s a political science professor at U.N.L.V.

VICTOR FAKOYA: My Ph.D. concentration is not primarily in American politics, it is international relations, but I have minor in comparative politics and American politics.

VICTOR FAKOYA (SPEAKING TO ELI): So let me send this to you now.

ELI: Thank you for emailing me while I’m sitting right next to you.

VICTOR FAKOYA: Because I’m sending it to your mailbox, so. . .

LOLA FAKOYA (ELI’S MOTHER): So Elizabeth is our first daughter. She’s, let’s see, she’s funny, serious, opinionated. Yeah.

VICTOR FAKOYA: I always have reflections on my relationship with Elizabeth. When I was in graduate school, I would sometimes take Elizabeth to class. So I’ll go everywhere with her.

ELI: Okay. What are you doing?

VICTOR FAKOYA: I’m trying to edit this paper on African Union and Pan-Africanism.

ELI: Growing up, I watched the news with my dad twenty-four seven, and we would talk and we’d talk and we’d talk. And he’d explain these things to me. And then once I gained an understanding, I would do my own research or I would just form my own opinion.

ELI (COOKING WITH HER FATHER): There’s like more onion, more tomato, more bell pepper than there is egg, Dad.

VICTOR FAKOYA: It will be okay.

ELI: Coming from an immigrant family, it is very in your face how bad things are around the world. It sometimes feels hopeless. I sometimes wish I lived in blissful ignorance and I didn’t know what was going on.

I remember Googling my dad in the fifth grade and seeing his name in the articles. And it was like, Nigerian man free after two years in prison, Nigerian man receives victory in court case. I was like, why is my dad in a court case? And then someone like, looked over my shoulder and said, oh, your dad’s a criminal. And I was like, no, no, no! My dad’s a good person. He’s never done anything. I got home and I said to my mom, hey, Mommy. I looked up Daddy and it said he went to jail. And they sat us down. Like all three of me and my sisters. And they gave us the rundown of what happened. Basically, he was falsely accused of murder. And they kept him in prison for two years for a crime he didn’t commit. When I was younger I would like be so upset that my dad isn’t home. Oh, I thought he was at work. No, he wasn’t at work. He was sitting in a cell where he didn’t belong. And like when we’d pray as a family, just me, my mom, and my sister, she would say, God loves you, Jesus loves you, Daddy loves you. And I would just be like, well Daddy’s in Nigeria. I would always like, in my mind, just go back and like place him in different places.

LOLA FAKOYA: I think, you know, when you’re growing up and you’re two years old and you’re in love with your dad, they were always together and all of a sudden it’s gone. And then you start to wonder, okay, what happened to this man that used to be here every afternoon.

ELI : When he came back, I was so, so, so happy. He had come back from “Nigeria.” And I think like, the worst part is, like, you escape a country that’s war torn, you escape poverty. You come here to try to make a better life for your family back home and you end up in the middle of the prison industrial complex.

VICTOR FAKOYA: I look back now and sometimes randomly I will just say, thank you, Lord, that I’m here for them. Yes, great injustice, but for the rest of my life, I remain grateful.

ELI (COOKING WITH HER FATHER): You put too much.

VICTOR FAKOYA: Well, your mom threw the, your mom threw the other one away.

ELI: For him to say, I forgive them. He said he forgives everybody. He’s a better person than me because I don’t. And that’s, like, when I started getting into politics and where I started to understand why things were the way were, the way they were, and how it was wrong. And then I realized I absolutely despise the American prison system. I don’t believe it should work that way. I believe it hurts people.

ELI (IN THE CLASSROOM): Because towards the end of the day, the term enemy combatant is vague and loose as by design so that the President can detain anyone that he sees fit.

ELI: So that’s why I do want to work in civil rights law, because I want to be there to speak for people. I want to make sure I can help people. And not for money, but for the sake of making sure that these people don’t have to go through what I had to go through, what my dad had to go through.

ELI (IN THE CLASSROOM): The right to due process goes to all American citizens, regardless of the crimes we believe they’ve committed.  If we are stripping…

ELI: To make sure no other little girl is lying in her bed just saying, where’s my dad?

TEXT ON SCREEN:

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

CADEN: Maggie Walker was always really my goal to go to as a school. I’ve wanted to go here since I was an eight year old. So I applied, I got in, and I was really happy about that.

SAM ULMSCHNEIDER (TEACHER, IN THE CLASSROOM): You’re now part of a very long tradition. Over here,  this is the very first We the People team. Team one. 1998.

CADEN: My full name is Schuyler Caden Cole VanValkenburg. It’s a long one.

SAM ULMSCHNEIDER (IN THE CLASSROOM): This is a competition, yes, but it’s an intellectual journey more than it is a competition. I’ll hopefully guide you to victory. But it’s also a way to grow. All right, the place where your unit tag was located is your unit. Go.

SAM ULMSCHNEIDER: This is my 13th year of teaching high school here at Maggie Walker. I was a student here at Maggie Walker. I have a strong sense of both the capacity of the students here and their intellectual curiosity, but also the pressure cooker which they find themselves in in a fairly elite high school.

STUDENT: I will say one of my specialties is Roman Republic.

STUDENT: Aristotle’s Politics is going to be a big deal.

JACKSON : I think the typical Maggie Walker student is very motivated. Obviously, we’re all very intelligent. We have to take a test to get in.

STUDENT: This is going to sound a little arrogant, but winning is Maggie Walker tradition. Like last year we won first in the nation. So it’s sort of a pressure like anything else is worse than what last year did.

SKYLAR: I feel like we have to win nationals because they won it last year.

AVERY: We’re winners, I guess. I mean, that feels weird to say because I have not won anything, but that’s kind of part of the reason I wanted to be on this team. Because I knew it’d be packed with people that like, actually care.

STUDENT: I don’t think that you can get to a high achieving place without having that sort of fire within you. And I’ve always been competitive.

STUDENT: I like winning. I’m a pretty competitive person in general.

STUDENT: All of your peers are very hardworking and ambitious.

CADEN: People who went to Harvard will never stop telling you that they went to Harvard. It’s true for Maggie Walker’s We the People team.

STUDENT: I think this is useful. It has all the drafts and, like, all the motions for the Second Amendment.

CADEN: The necessary and proper clause. Article three, the good behavior. . .

STUDENT: Yeah, but that’s not how, you don’t get to choose!

CADEN:  I’m just going to heavily disagree with you the whole time.

STUDENT: No, that’s, yeah, that’s what we need.

CADEN: I ended up in We the People because Government and U.S. History were really fun and I want to continue doing it. Also because my dad’s in government. I mean, I want to follow in his footsteps one day.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG (WALKING WITH HIS CHILDREN IN A PARADE): Woo!

CADEN: And there he goes.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: Happy Glen Allen day. You guys – don’t look like you’re having so much fun.

CADEN: Hey, I’m smiling.

CADEN’S SISTER: I love the rain.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: People are going to get confused.

CADEN: I’m smiling, Dad. I mean it’s wet as hell.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: How are y’all?

CADEN: My dad is Schuyler VanValkenburg.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: Hey what’s up? How are you?

CADEN: He’s the current delegate for the 72nd District of the Virginia House of Delegates and a Government teacher at Glen Allen High School.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: How are you guys? You guys having fun?

CADEN: And we lost him again.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: I love all the kids being troopers. I love all the kids being troopers. How are y’all?

CADEN: Hey, you’ve got a raincoat. You can put on the hood.

CADEN’S SISTER: I’ll take it off.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: Woo. What’s up? How’s it going?

CADEN: Off again. I mean, I’m sure Dad’s taught half the kids here.

CADEN: My dad, he’s been teaching for most of my life, um, at various schools and first ran for office in 2017 following the presidential election that year. He’s been doing that since I was 11-year-old.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG (SPEAKING TO A SMALL CROWD): Uh, I’m going to keep it brief because we have a lot of doors to knock. We only have 31 days. Time is scarce, right?

CADEN: Back when I was an 11-year-old, I knew nothing about how the campaigning process worked, but I used to think it was mostly just like giving a speech on why you should vote for me. But a lot of it is the more boring stuff.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG (CAMPAIGNING DOOR TO DOOR): Hello. How are you?

VOTER: Good. How are you?

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: Good. My name is Schuyler. Uh, I’m running to be your state senate assembly member. I would love to earn your vote.

CADEN: This year, the campaign’s mostly centered around abortion after Dobbs v. Jackson – Democrats going pro-choice, trying to get a amendment for that in the Virginia state Constitution.

VOTER: You’ve got to win this. You got this down.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: Yeah, we’re feeling good. We’re doing the work.

VOTER: Yep. You are.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: That’s why I’m here.

VOTER: You are. You are. And you’re all over the TV. You look fabulous.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: Yeah.

CADEN: I will go out and some people will say that they’ve seen my dad’s ads. They’re everywhere. It’s absurd.

CADEN (TO HIS DAD): How did canvassing go?

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: It was good. Not a lot of doors opened, but that’s okay. TV is important, though.

CADEN: Yeah it is.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: People watch TV.

CADEN: I’ll just quote some of the lines from his ads at him that I think are particularly corny.

ARCHIVAL (POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT):
SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: I’m Schuyler VanValkenburg. When I’m not here, I’m here in a classroom of high school students. Here. . .

CADEN: I’m a teacher, and I represent you here.

ARCHIVAL (POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT):
SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: . . . and here, I put it into action.

CADEN: I’m a teacher. I’m a parent, and I’m a delegate. That stuff, I’ve heard it so many times. It makes me cringe every time. A lot of my life is just focused like what my dad is doing in some ways.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: We’re going to be gone, so we’ll be back.

CADEN: So figure out dinner is what you’re telling me.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: Yeah. Figure out dinner is what I’m telling you.

CADEN: O.K.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: Yeah.

CADEN: But I know he’s doing this because he thinks he can make a difference. It’s really inspiring to see that your dad, who was just a teacher at a public high school is now, like, one of the more important people in the state. It’s just really cool.

TEXT ON SCREEN:

GLEN ALLEN HIGH SCHOOL

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG (IN THE CLASSROOM): This is the best way to learn government. It’s the best way to understand why it matters. But you’re also going to be like doing citizenship as you learn it. So all the things that make a good citizen you’re going to be doing, you’re going to have to dialog with a group member you don’t agree with. You’re going to have to hear someone say they don’t like what you said. That too, my friends, is democracy, right? Okay? Um, and so…

CADEN: And also, basically my dad is in charge of our rival team. Which is stressful slash exciting.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG (IN THE CLASSROOM): This is about a process. Do I want to win? Yes. My son is on an opposing team. We’ve got a lot at stake this year, no pressure, right? Okay? Like we must defeat them.

SCHUYLER VANVALKENBURG: Certainly he wants to beat dad, right? Certainly he wants the bragging rights and I will not hear the end of it, of course, if they win.

TEXT ON SCREEN:

CHEYENNE, WYOMING

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): If it’s not listed in the Constitution, it belongs to the…

STUDENTS: States!

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): States. Thanks. Okay, it’s kind of what a lot of states say, that this is where we get power.

MARIO (IN THE CLASSROOM): Actually, I feel like that’d be a pretty good answer. Instead of everyone squabbling about whether or not we should have guns, just let the states decide it because we don’t have to be angry with people across the country for having different views. If the state that we live in just decides, you know what I mean?

STUDENT: Especially like population density wise. That’s the main reason for. . .

MARIO (IN THE CLASSROOM): Like if California were to ban guns, but we didn’t…

STUDENT: Who cares?

MARIO (IN THE CLASSROOM): Yeah, exactly!

STUDENT: They’d just go to Wyoming if they really want guns.

MARIO: I do like learning about government and stuff because it’s a concept that interests me.

STUDENT: What did we say we were keeping?

MARIO (IN THE CLASSROOM): We’re getting rid of the second, third, sixth and eighth …

MARIO: Thinking about how everything influences each other, like how the government influences society, how society influences the government.

What our unit is about is how the Constitution, like works I suppose. But to me it’s just a piece of paper. It’s interesting to see how a piece of paper controls so much around us, like how the country’s shaped how the country’s run, stuff like that.

I get off of school at 2:45. And so for like 2 hours I do whatever I need to do or whatever I’m going to do for that time. And then I go to work at four. I do my job for six hours. I come home at ten, I probably get to sleep around 11.

My parents live in San Pedro del Gallo in Mexico. My dad’s always wanted to move back to Mexico. They just didn’t want to live here anymore. They gave me an option, I chose to stay. It is tough. Like, they’re my parents, you know, I should have that connection with them. But they’re just, there’s not an option at the moment. I live with my brother and his roommates. When it comes to like bills and stuff like that, I pay my own phone bill and I will have to start paying for my insurance and stuff like that. I’m mostly just responsible for myself.

Part of why I’m so unmotivated in school is because I hate being forced to be there because it takes up my free time when I feel like I could be doing better things with it. Like working more. I’ve never missed a day and I never will because I value my job. Because I have actual goals I do want to achieve, but very few of them actually interact with school at all. I feel like it’s just like a roadblock. And I know you need a high school diploma, you know? But it feels ridiculous to me that I need a piece of paper to prove to someone that I can show up to a job every day or something like that, you know?

TEXT ON SCREEN:

5:30 AM

ERIN LINDT: I have a hard time sleeping at night because there’s lots of kids that I worry about. If they’re safe, if they’re fed, what their home’s like.

CHRIS LINDT: Today’s Tuesday.

ERIN LINDT: Thank you, it’s Tuesday!

ERIN LINDT: My husband Chris actually also teaches here at South.

ERIN LINDT: Long week!

CHRIS LINDT: Erin is very smart. Like anybody who talks to us is like, I married up. Like she is way smarter than me. I’m a bit of an introvert and she’s definitely an extrovert.

ERIN LINDT: His exterior seems so rough and gruff, but he’s actually the nicest man in the world and he’d give you the shirt off of his back.

CHRIS LINDT: We have very different teaching styles.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): I love your sweater! I have that dog, a Doberman, uh huh. You literally look like an angel, it’s like, AHHHHH! Do you want to arm wrestle? I’ll kick your butt. Let’s go, Let’s go. That was a great high five. Oh, my God. The showdown, we’re not. We’re literally not moving.

CHRIS LINDT: When talking about Erin with other teachers, you hear the, oh, my God, how does she do that? I can’t, like, I can’t even comprehend how her classroom runs.

ERIN LINDT (ARM WRESTLING WITH ELIAS): How does it feel?

ELIAS: I’m a lefty by the way.

ERIN LINDT: To lose? To lose? Oh, my God, I’m going to break your arm!

ERIN LINDT: When I first got to South, I was the most mediocre teacher ever.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Appreciate that. Okay, guys, ready for the fun part today then? So we’re going to talk about the Bill of Rights today. Who in here can name all ten of the Bill of Rights protections? Let’s go, all ten.

ELIAS: Search and seizure

ERIN LINDT: I was a pretty traditional teacher. But my first year at South, my kids wouldn’t pay attention if I taught like that. And so I had to reinvent how I was going to approach them.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): It’s going to be so cringey. It’s going to make you hate your life for a minute. But it’s going to really help you remember. Are you guys ready? You’re going to take your finger and make a one. Hello, Mario! Thank you for coming in and already participating, though. Okay. Ah! One. . .

ERIN LINDT: I have to kind of meet my kids where they’re at. I’m always trying to find the most fresh and engaging way to teach it to them.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): You guys ready? So you take your one finger, you’re going to do freedom of religion like you’re putting up to God. Okay. Freedom of assembly was my next one. What does it mean to assemble?

ERIN LINDT: Because some of these things are so dense that it makes no sense. And so I really try to make it understandable. And then also relevant because I know it’s going to stick with them.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Assembly. Okay, then I got to pee. I don’t really have to pee, but what does the “P” stand for? Petition. What is a petition?

ERIN LINDT: We have a month and three days full of anxiety until competition. And yeah, we have a lot. We have basically have everything to do.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Okay, so what should we do with our one, with petition? I always do this. Like, you did something wrong!

ERIN LINDT: So I’m just trying to create, honestly like a wealth of knowledge in the kids in as fast of a time as I can.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Petition, press, and speech. So it’s R. A. P. P. S. What is it again?

STUDENT:  Religion, assembly, petition, press, speech.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Okay, sometimes you guys, they call the First Amendment freedom of expression, because if you think about that …

CHRIS LINDT: I’ll walk by her room and you can just see her going 100 miles an hour. The kids are getting it, they’re understanding it.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): You have no unreasonable search and seizure?

STUDENT: What time is it? What time is it?

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): What time is it? Why? It’s time to go to court. You do not have to self-incriminate yourself. You don’t have to say anything.

STUDENT: Oh. The right to, the right to remain silent.

CHRIS LINDT: And it’s that rewarding part for her where she can see that she made a difference for that kid. And she’s making a difference for South.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): And then. . .

STUDENTS: Not my problem.

ERIN LINDT (IN THE CLASSROOM): Not my problem, who’s problem? Beautiful, ok. I need you to get your iPads out, please.

CHRIS LINDT: The energy’s 110. Like, she comes home and she’s tired at night, and I get why.

ERIN LINDT: I’m really terrible at taking care of myself, because I just find education to be more of a lifestyle than a job. And I don’t know how to turn it off. Chris’s family has this ranch out in Buford, Wyoming. For Chris, he loves coming out here. It’s restorative. For me, it’s exhausting.

CHRIS LINDT: How was your day?

ERIN LINDT: It was okay. I’m tired. Really tired. It’s just, I’m never alone. Just like with the kids. I’m like uh. . .

CHRIS LINDT: Well that’s your deal. Just close the door and kick them out.

ERIN LINDT: I know. I know. I hit my wall.

CHRIS LINDT: We the People involves a lot of stress for her every year. It is a lot of stress.

ERIN LINDT (WITH HER HORSE): All right. Hey, you don’t do that!

ERIN LINDT: Chris and I have always wanted a family. We’ve talked about it. Last year we were able to get pregnant, but we had a miscarriage

ERIN LINDT (WITH HER HORSE): Dude, really?

ERIN LINDT: And since then we haven’t been able to get pregnant.

ERIN LINDT (WITH HER HORSE): What did you do to get that many pokies in you?

ERIN LINDT: We’ve gone through a lot of testing and everything’s fine.

ERIN LINDT (WITH HER HORSE): I know you like candy.

ERIN LINDT: And so that points to one thing. I fall into the category of unknown infertility, and I know it’s stress.

ERIN LINDT (WITH HER HORSE): That feel good though? I know you don’t like your ear. I know, I know.

ERIN LINDT: I’m getting to the point where I’m going to be past childbearing years. I have to almost decide, do I take care of the next generation and get them prepared to be good citizens, or do I start my own family?

ERIN LINDT (WITH HER HORSE): Such a good boy. Yeah. Love that guy.

ERIN LINDT: So do I be selfish or do I be selfless? I don’t know.

ERIN LINDT (WITH HER HORSE): Alright.

ELI: How are you doing your hair?

HANNA: Oh, oh my God, I do—

ELI: Because I lowkey want to do an updo that compliments my dress. What accessories are you doing? Cause I don’t know if I want to do gold or pearls.

HANNA: Oh. I’m doing pearls.

ELI: Oh. Okay.

HANNA: I’m going to be Tinkerbell with my red dress.

ELI: Tinkerbell with a red dress is crazy.

ELI: It’s a little weird to think about the fact that right now I’m like raising my hand to ask if I can go to the bathroom, and then in a year I’m going to be in a dorm room alone.

SOPHIA: Since it’s like, senior year, we have to like try to really make this year the special one, since it’s like the last one.

SOPHIA: Do you think we should take photos like with the hat on?

FRIEND: Yes

SOPHIA: I’ll put this on.

ELIAS: As I become an adult, it’s kinda scary. It seems like I definitely need to take things a whole lot more seriously. And for We the People, I definitely hope that we do compete well. I really do. But, uh, there’s a lot of other states out there. Fifty of them. Especially with people who have programs that they like, literally do it every year.

CADEN: We’ve all been straight-A students. So now we’ve got to like… we keep stressing ourselves out to maintain it. It’s just like I have to do really well on this or I’m going to let myself down.

HANNA: In the Philippines, only one person can be on top. And I always strive to be that person, but at the same time I feel like here in America I’m like, always behind everyone. I feel dumb. And it’s just, you know, it puts you into that place where you think you’re not good enough.

ETHAN: I’m not satisfied with the way the world is right now. But I try not to let all the negativity in the world get to me. Because if I let it consume me, then maybe I might become just another generic person who’s complacent with the system.

HANNA: I feel like I have a purpose to serve in this world. I want to be that person.

ELI: I genuinely think that this generation is motivated by change. I know there are some people doing small, small things, trying to make it better for everyone. But I want to work hard enough to know that I can change something and it changes on a big enough level. Do you guys want Ramen?

(END)