Democracy Day: Middle School

Middle School’s Democracy Day centered on the year 1888. Students began their day with a convention that highlighted pride among the U.S. and the 38 states in existence that year. Carrying brightly colored signs, Middle School students marched into the Amon G. Carter Foundation Commons to learn more about the goal of the day – to foster democracy, promote civility, and empower future citizens – and to hear from the presidential candidates, incumbent Grover Cleveland (portrayed by Morgan Gatzke ’29) and Benjamin Harrison (portrayed by Mars McWaters ’29). 

Following the convention kick-off, the students attended three of four sessions. All sessions focused on the concept of democracy in unique ways. The Gallery Walk challenged the students to study pieces of art, write responses in a variety of ways to the art, and then participate in a discussion about their interpretations. In Quilt-It, students were given a square to decorate after watching a video and participating in a discussion. All the squares from each grade were put together to create a larger quilt. The Scavenger Hunt sent students all over campus as they solved riddles to make it to their next stop. In Democracy in Jeopardy, students worked as teams to answer questions to score points. Each session had its own way of presenting the same ideas involving democracy.

FWCD parent Fabian Serralta shared his story of coming to America. Serralta lived in Cuba until he was 9 years old. His family tried 19 times to leave and go to the United States. During one of the trips on a speedboat, they were stopped, and his dad was put in prison. As a result, his family went from being a wealthy family that owned multiple properties and houses to having only a single house and belongings. One day, his dad was working on a collection of old cars when a general stopped by and asked if he would work on his cars to get the cars running again. When the cars were repaired, the general offered his family a place to live and would pay for his children to go to private school. Serralta’s father denied his offer and said he wanted out of Cuba, so the entire family was flown to Miami in the middle of the night. His father worked hard to get their family back to their previous lifestyle, and now the Serraltas reside in Texas.

Next, Harrison and Cleveland debated, and students then broke into their state rooms (advisories) to discuss the candidate options, and practice civil discourse to begin deciding how to vote. They took a lunch break and went back to their state rooms to further discuss the candidates and ultimately cast their electoral vote for the presidential candidate of their choice. The day ended with grade-level democracy trivia challenges using Kahoot, featuring questions from a U.S. citizenship test.  

The states then returned to the Carter Commons to learn the results of their kahoot and the election with additional student reflection about what they learned throughout the day. Who won? Benjamin Harrison.