Tuesday, June 20th
Washington, DC

Each morning of the day begins with breakfast and a review of the Washington Post. This is responsibility I share with one other faculty member. Our job is basically two fold. Our first responsibility is to highlight articles that apply to what we are studying and who the students are meeting. The second task is to teach students to read a newspaper.
In this information age we often forget this is a lost art and skill. As newspapers turn to digital renderings our next generation is losing the “art” of newspaper reading. I can’t think of any greater pleasure than Saturday/Sunday morning with a fresh pot of coffee, no where to be, and a good newspaper. What makes this task better is that the Post is such a good newspaper. I’m sorry but my Commercial Appeal leaves me wanting for more.
Today the kids worked on the judicial branch issues most of the morning and afternoon. The task they were assigned was to read, break down, research, argue, and rule on the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. Here is a link to a write up of the basics of the case if anyone wants to take a look at it (Understand) The Washington Post has been running an editorial series on this case this week. The court is expected to issue a ruling in the nest week or so. It must render a ruling before this judicial session is over at the end of June. The work of these kids is nothing short of remarkable. This aspect of the program I am simply sitting back and marveling at the faculty and students that I am working with. The cases, with primers from the previous days prep classes and homework reading, was basically broken down and taught in one day. Definitively, there are some future lawyers in this group. I’m not just talking about the ability to argue, I am citing specific acumen in the area of reasoning skills. This group got excited about 100 pages of work. There were some student groups stronger than other others but they all worked in teams and everyone contributed.
Let me remind you that this all happened before 6pm in the evening. From that point the students got dressed up for a reception that would preview a debate, hosted by the St. Albans community, for two city council members who running for chairperson of the council. The kids worked the crowd like seasoned pros. After the students sought people to talk to the people began to seek them out. We eventually had to leave early to listen to the next speaker who came at 7pm.
The speaker was the author Jennifer Miller. She published a book earlier this fall titled, Inheriting the Holy Land. (Website). She was the former student of one of our faculty members and is only 26 years old. The story of the book is remarkable, I really can’t do it justice in a reasonable amount of time. So here is a link to the transcript and audio version of an interview she did on NPR, just click on the light blue title for the audio version. This kid, for all intent and purposes, completed this program called Seeds of Peace when she was sixteen, got a book deal after college, then moved to Jerusalem, and wrote a book. This is all quite impressive, more impressive however was her ability to relate to the SPS students. She was frank, funny, serious, and gave these kids a lot to think about. She spoke of writing and passions. Jennifer spoke for about an hour the answered questions formally and informally for another hour. The kids ate up everything she had to say. I can only imagine how proud her ninth grade teacher, fellow faculty member, was of her. What struck me was her story of how her interest in foreign affairs came about as a punishment for refusing to get out of the car on a family outing to tour the Antietam battle field. Her parents made her read the Washington Post for week and write summaries of different articles.
There are times in the past week that these kids’ bios and the people they are meeting have made me doubt who I am, where I am in my life, and what could have been. That feeling passes quite quickly though. I don’t think that I would have appreciated nearly as much as I’m appreciating these experiences now. Besides I definitively know that I am far from done and am quite happy who I have become.