Fifth graders take the witness stand for annual Simulated Congressional Hearings

Maryland Del. Pam Guzzone leaned forward to ask a question to the panel of expert witnesses gathered before her: “Should freedom of speech ever be restricted?”

“Sometimes your freedom of expression should be limited,” replied Roxana Batista-Patino. “You can’t yell ‘fire’ when there’s not a fire and there are certain things that you can’t do, like protest on private property.”

Olivia Grosso concurred and brought up the example of insurrectionists storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“People were seriously hurt and it caused a lot of fear,” Grosso said.

Despite the constitutional expertise they displayed, Grosso, Batista-Patino and the rest of their colleagues aren’t your typical congressional hearing witnesses — they are fifth-graders at Hammond Elementary School in Laurel.

On May 16, all Hammond fifth-graders took part in the Howard County Public School System’s Simulated Congressional Hearings, a performance-based assessment during which groups of four to five students provide oral testimony on U.S. history and democracy to a panel of judges composed of local elected officials, community members and school staff.

The hearings run at county elementary schools through June 8.

“I really like this program,” said Guzzone, who is in her second year volunteering as a committee member, or “judge.” “Everybody talks about the challenges between the common good and individual rights. It’s something really important for kids to start being aware of.”

Since launching at one elementary school in 2003, the Simulated Congressional Hearings have grown to become an end-of-the-year tradition for fifth graders at all 42 Howard elementary schools.

“In Howard County we firmly believe that because all students are going to be citizens, all students should be doing this program,” said Kimberly Eggborn, coordinator for elementary social studies. “Everybody is going to be a citizen of their community and needs to know how to be active and involved and to give back.”

The hearings were initially established by the California-based Center for Civic Education in 1987 as part of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution. While the original program was designed for high schoolers, HCPSS decided to adapt it for fifth graders as the culmination of their social studies unit.

“It’s become a hallmark of the Howard County Public School System,” Eggborn said. “Other counties do it, they just don’t do it on a systemwide level.”

In addition to testing their social studies knowledge, students must learn to work together on teams and hone their public speaking skills as they craft a four-minute speech and answer up to 10 questions from judges posing as a congressional committee.

“How you write the speech and how you do the follow-up questions ... I think that was the hardest part,” said Dominic Nguyen, 10, a Hammond fifth grader.

The hearing topics revolve around four content areas: the American Revolution, creation of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, separation of powers, and responsible citizenship. As they demonstrate their knowledge of the past, students are also asked by judges to apply constitutional law and history to present-day scenarios.

“It was kind of hard to come [up] with a compromise using current events from articles we’ve read and applying them to our speech,” said Grosso, 10. “We had some struggles with that. But we figured it all out in the end and it was really fun.”

Towson University professor and History Department Chair Christian Koot specializes in U.S. colonial history and has served as a Simulated Congressional Hearings judge for four years. He says he is consistently impressed by the passion students display in their speeches and their responses to judges’ questions, which often cover issues even adult politicians struggle to address, such as why youth voter turnout is low.

“Howard County social studies should be proud of the kind of analytical thinking they’re asking them to do,” Koot said. “Clearly they’re demonstrating a high competency.”

Eggborn says another one of the program’s goals is to teach students news literacy and how to identify credible sources while searching the internet.

“Those are the skills that we want them to learn — how to digest information today, which is different than it used to be in the past, because in the past they were [only] getting these vetted books and articles,” Eggborn said.