Constitution Team by Kate

Constitution Team by Kate - December 2019 Scholarship Essay

In 7th grade, my social studies teacher took time out of class to tell us about the upcoming 2016 election. She told us that there is one way to vote, and that is not for Trump. This moment stuck with me. I remember the feeling of being caught off guard and slightly uneasy. We were being told exactly how to think and feel, and I had no context to even decide if I agreed or disagreed with my teacher’s statements. It was one of the first moments that I instantly recognized a bias, and I immediately questioned what I was being told.

This was not the only piece of political opinion I encountered. My neighborhood, in fact the city of Portland, is densely liberal. Its sameness in ideology can encourage a disillusion that there is a “right” way of thinking. Opposing viewpoints are rarely represented. Even when I did witness debate, I did not know how to process it. Since elementary school, I was a keen observer of the conversations taking place at family dinners. I overheard discussions about who my parents were going to vote for. But, I barely understood what they were voting for, or what this electoral college was that they kept mentioning. My interest was evident, my questions were valid, but I was still searching for a way to unravel these concerns and questions. So sophomore year when my US history teacher spotted my interest in the curriculum, he recommended I consider Constitution Team. I did, and signed up.

My eagerness to join the team proved to be helpful in giving me access to mentors and peers who would help me gain an understanding of the history and current events that had been foreign to me before. I began debating issues that I was learning about in Con Team with my dad. His knowledge is dense, so naturally debates began. I was encouraged to acknowledge opposing viewpoints, and I now had election outcomes, exact language of various amendments, and congressional approval polls in my back pocket, to back up my opinions. Although I sometimes walked away frustrated, I also began to walk away with small victories. Whether those victories meant bringing a perspective into the discussion that my dad had not considered, or remembering a statistic that would be relevant, I was proud of my progress.

Early on, I learned to be critical of the information I was receiving, specifically concerning politics. But, it was not until I began to unlock opposing viewpoints that often flew under the radar, that I was able to cement some of my beliefs about the type of learner I wanted to be. I learned that I was not comfortable surrounding myself with like-minded thinkers. I preferred an array of opinions. I truly found value in diversity of opinion, and that encouraged me to be objective and curious. I try to carry those traits into any conversation I have, whether that be with a teacher, a family member, or a peer.