Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
Chocachatti Elementary wants to be sure today's students don't take the three-year-old document for granted.
By LOGAN NEILL
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 6, 2003
SPRING HILL -- By just about anyone's standards it was quite a fanfare.
Students dressed in American flag motif shirts sang songs about liberty and justice. Actors dressed in clothing from the era of the nation's founding fathers performed a fast paced skit about the country's first governmental decrees.
And dancers helped to usher a patriotic sendoff that underscored the meaning of Chocachatti Elementary's second constitutional convention.
Around the 3-year-old school the word constitution has always had a significant meaning, dating back to fall of 1999, when student delegates from every grade met to draw up their own set of rules the students would live and work by. That original constitution, which now hangs in the administration office, helped set the stage for how the new magnet school and its microsociety would be run.
Over time, the student-led government has amended the bill of rights to include mandates such as outlawing the vandalism of microsociety currency, adding parent senate representatives and yes, even the right to have an ice cream vending machine in the cafeteria.
But just as in the real world, the lofty goals of government can often be taken for granted by its citizens. So last week, the school held another convention in an effort to reaffirm the goals and aspirations outlined in the original document.
"I think the biggest reason to have it was to make kids, especially the ones who are new or were very young when the school first opened, to become more aware of the significance of having a constitution," said Norma Foote, Chocachatti Elementary's microsociety coordinator. "It seemed like a good time to tie it into a real world look at how our country's Constitution continues to live today."
In January, Foote began putting together a special program that would tie the American concept of democracy to the one guaranteed by Chocachatti's student decree. The desire was to make a presentation that was not just informative and educational, but also fun.
She adapted a popular historical student play called The Constitution Lives and asked the school's fine arts director Becky Ickstadt to work up some musical numbers for the school's Show Singers to perform.
"We had a lot of lines to learn," said 11-year-old Grant Eder, who narrated the play in an Uncle Sam costume. "We really liked doing it because kids were going to learn things from it."
In all, more than 100 students participated in the production, which was performed first during the school's afternoon microsociety session and again that evening for parents and the members of the community.
Chocachatti principal Michael Tellone provided a historical look at the first convention while a video played scenes of the ratification ceremonies. The students stood and recited the original preamble that outlined the intentions of the constitution.
Later, Chocachatti student president Jack Diven said he was impressed by his fellow students' attentiveness during the presentation, noting that many don't realize how unusual their school is.
"A lot of kids don't know how lucky they are to be able to make their own rules at their school," said the fifth-grader, who was elected president in November. "I think it shows that we take the responsibility of government very seriously. I'll bet if you asked kids in other schools if they would love to do what we do here, they'd immediately say yes."