Mr. Hall’s senior students in Government have been working on a Mock Legislature. The students were given a scenario where Carterville has been selected as a temporary capital as the new government takes shape in the Southern portion of Illinois. Each class developed new pieces of legislation that could be impactful for their new government.
The activity was first introduced with freshman and brought it back with seniors from last year. The Mock Legislature provides students with an opportunity to work with the bill to law process. Mr. Hall explains about the steps involved in drafting a bill as he states, “Each student selects their own topic and once approved they can begin writing. We culminate with the committee process.”
Many of the bills that students come up with are put through a “drafting phase.” Hall goes onto explain, “Students should learn or develop a basic understanding of the bill to law process. Writing, debating, amending, procedures, etc.”
There were over 60+ students who participated in the Mock Legislature during this semester. Senior Neenah Lin talked about “Underage Credit Card Users” as her bill. Lin talks about her experience with the activity as she says, “I think that the Mock Legislature and being able to create my own bill was a really interesting project in our government class.” Unfortunately, her bill was not passed in her class but, she says that it was a “really cool” project to do.
Another senior, Alyssa Nausley, worked on her bill this semester. Her bill was on “The Safety of Foster Children” in Southern Illinois. Nausley spoke about her thoughts on working on this activity as she says, “I loved going through the activity of the Mock Legislator since it was something different. I learned alot from every bill that was brought up and how different peoples perspectives were on their classmates bills.” Nausley goes on to say, “I am excited for the general assembly because I can see the other bills that have passed in the other classes and get to see others perspectives on things.”
On average, about ⅓ of bills pass committee and roughly ⅓ of those pass later in the general assembly. This year, multiple bills passed in the 1st hour, 3rd hour and 7th hour classes. The bills that were passed will be put through the General Assembly, which will take place at a later date in the auditorium.
Overall, students who took advantage of this to show off their interests in certain topics can say that they enjoyed this assignment since it was something completely new to them.
