Austin Munroe

12/6/2016

Model Senate Reflection

1. What was your role in Model Senate? Could you describe what you did? What
did you like about your role? What was hard about your role?
I filled the role as committee chair Joe Machine, Democratic representative of West Virginia. My
job was to participate in Model Senate, refining and working to pass a bill onto the senate floor.
During the drafting process for bills in our individual committees, my partner and I worked to
draft a possible solution to growing climate change problems in our country. While everyone
presented a draft of a bill, ours did not make it out of committee. My partner and I did engage at
the same level as everyone else working towards a solution acceptable to my fellow senators
Between research and the local experts that came to class I was able to form a bill to fight against
climate change. Using reduction programs and incentives for reduction in gas emissions to lower
global gas concentration. Without my bill passing committee I was free to refine and suggest
amendments to the passing bill based on my senator's position on climate change.
2. What was your favorite moment or memory from model senate?
A favorite memory from Model Senate does not exist. This whole process has been a bland and
boring experience this year. While there may be a learning experience in this project, it was lost
in the endless facts, drowned out by the packets, and buried by ackwards class time schedules. I
apologize to everyone that felt like investing time and energy into developing this project but it
has no appeal to me. It was hard, it was long, it took the majority of a semester and lacked the
fruits of such a lengthy project. Im sure that this was a beneficial project but it's hard to see that
when my skills as a writer have not grown or expanded. When my understanding of grammar,
writing, public speaking or any skills that I thought I had committed to developing my freshman
year haven't grown either. These skills have remained rooted in the same position as when I
started this project. I value my education and intended this year for growth, both academically
and cognitively, but I was disappointed that I was unable to grow through this project because it
didnt appeal to me in ways it couldve to others.
When I committed to a project based learning education I was under the impression that my
much needed skills as a student would grow and carry me to the heights I need to be successful.
Writing, reading, my command of rhetoric, and the may aspect of high school education have
halted. Instead my fear and failure of public speaking, proofreading, and the different aspects of
being a student I lacked has only rooted within me. The feeling of inadequacy is increasingly
apparent as I move into a very short and final semester of my education.

3. What was hardest for you about this project? Where do you think you could have
improved your performance?
Differentiating between the personality of my senator and my personal bias was definitely the
hardest part of Model Senate that affected me in the exhibition. If it's not entirely obvious, I am
not a particularly energetic individual. Expressing myself verbally is challenging, and as the
project went on, expressing different characteristics of my senator seemed increasingly daunting.
Becoming expressive and developing a separate personality is something that I can not do. I
struggle to present myself, let alone someone else, taking the energy to do this seemed like a
inadequate. My performance in Model Senate is irrelevant as I did not need to participate with a
speech but rather through my votes that I cast.
My personal skills or abilities do not aline with any part of Model Senate, I know that my voice
in the real world will only amount to a handful of votes every four years. I would rather be part
of naive cynicism then actively waste my time on a project that amounts to little retainable skills
or meaning as I highly doubt my use parliamentary procedure will surpass the classroom.
4. How engaged were you during the actual exhibition? Why? What do you think
contributed to your engagement or lack of engagement?
I'm not going the downgrade just how underwhelming the final exhibition was for me. I regarded
politics as dry, boring and extremely confusing. The idea of sitting for three hours using
parliamentary procedure, giving speeches on bills that would vaguely holds any value outside of
a classroom is frustrating. When I arrived at exhibition and took my seat I was surprised by the
effort and intention the majority of my peers were putting towards exhibition. Speeches given
with hits of character and the slight underlying positions of their senators. I underestimated how
much more engaged we were in individual committees at school. Speeches were revised, new
ones were written, improvisational speeches to both to the audience and in direct rebelling
against the opposing sides. Exhibition seemed like an unnecessary formality for the school to
show sometime that ultimately relieved how little confidence parents and community members
have in this project.
5. What do you think about the final bill that passed out of your committee?
The bill that climate change committee exported out of its specific committee originated from the
Republican party. It largely reflected setting limits on carbon emissions and slightly stricter cap
and trade. The bill reflected a want for change, lowering the ability for pollution among
companies. The bill lack the limitation that I would have wanted personally as my senator. The
problem of impersonating a Senator you have never met before is that, you actually have no idea
what they think or how their reaction might differ from your own. And knowing how that person
would react to an amendment or speech is even harder. When It came to time to write

amendments in the second day of committees, the Republican party purposed absolutely
ridiculous amendments, based on stereotypical core values and blown out of proportion. When
you have a majority of more or less strong liberals and ask them to be something you're not is not
going to work. Being put into another pair of shoes only works when that person wants to be in
those shoes. I don't think the bill reflected either the perspectives of the senators that produced it
nor the students that portrayed them.
6. How well did our senate process reflect what actually would have happened
(content and process)?
This is a hard question to answer. I have no idea how the two compare or how they differ. It
would be a much better question to present to students who know how an actuality committee
runs. I can only assume that Model Senate ran as it was designed to.
7. After doing this, how would you answer the question, is congress broken?
After doing this project I can not answer this question except to say that congress will always
need fixing. Congress works, when it's balanced. The two political parties become unbalanced
and a majority can become an almost exclusive voice for the government. Like what we're seeing
in the current presidential election, the House of Representatives and Senate are all currently
controlled by the Republican party, with an extremely polarized Republican President the other
side has little power to stop bills that do not aline with the Democratic party. Passing bills
unwanted by the GOP will become harder and harder until more seats in House of
Representatives and Senate are filled with Democrats. Republicans are not the root of the
problem, both sides seek to maintain control and when the Democratic party assumes the same
control the same problems continues. Balance must come from the individual seats that make up
the House and Senate. Balancing the seats between the two parties may be the simplest answer.
8. How was your stress level during this project? Was that stress level warranted?
Explain.
The only stress that came from this project was giving a speech. Public speaking is one of the
few things Id go to extremes rather than do that again. Once I learned that I would not have to
give a speech my stress went away. Stress of grades and college acceptance far surpass the stress
from Model Senate unfortunately it only makes any stress I had before twice as pressing.
Spreading myself between these different aspects of my semester only makes each worse and
consciously harder to mentally handle as the year progresses.
9. If you could do this project again, what would you do differently?

If I could do this project again, I would walk away. I did not enjoy this project in any way. I
would rather drop out of this school then do another Model Senate project or Happiness project.
This project has the appeal of 12 hours of C-span on repeat. This project blended together into
the longest semester of my high school career. Content became similar, speeches, due dates,
assignments and articles became a large pile of information that lacked importance or perspective
I needed. Learning about three different topics, then separating among them. This process doesn't
work and neither does the project, it's time to move on to a topic and project that receives more
than mild acceptance and appreciation from all its students.
10. What advice would you give to students doing this project next year?
I wouldn't give advice on this project. I did not see any value of this project nor do I ever want to
participate again. This project is time consuming, extensive and dull. The educational value of
this project is not worth passing on to the class of 2018, 2019, or 2020. While politics is a large
and important part of modern history and the development of government, this form of learning
is ineffective. My advice, if any, to future students would be, watch 10,000 hours C-span on fast
forward. You'll get a better education without wasting two months of your time doing something
you are not engaged with.