Constitution Showdown

Another reason to take IB History: Powdered wigs are involved and highly encouraged. Our U.S. history class had a mock constitutional convention, where we were paired up and assigned delegates to impersonate. I would take nothing less than the Father of the Constitution, James Madison of Virginia. Dressing in suitable clothing was a grade requirement, but instead of going with a cute pair of flats, an adorable dress, and a jean jacket, I showed up in full 18th century gear. So did my partner.

Left to right: Rufus King, James Madison #1, James Madison #2

The debate was dazzling. As Madison, we had to present the Virginia Plan (the idea for representation that was based on population, the foundation of the current House of Representatives). My parter is nothing short of an artistic genius (She can just sit down and doodle an amazing work involving a knight riding a rooster and it looks like an image from an illustrated manuscript from the middle ages), and she contrived a fantastic rendering of the Virginia Plan, in patriotic colors no less.

I was surprised with how much I disagreed with James Madison's opinions, but I defended them to the death throughout our debate. At one point, to back up my assertion that a Bill of Rights was a bad idea, because listing some rights would involve the omission of others, I stood up and said, "Well, in 200 years, people may be arguing over a woman's right to choose what she does with her body or if homosexuals should be allowed to marry, just because we didn't get around to explicitly mentioning those things in our Bill of Rights." Current events are just as useful two centuries ago as they are now.

Eat your heart out, history nerds.