Friday, May 18, 2018

Day 152 - Mrs. Carey's US History Class Participates in #SchoolWithSeth

via Twitter: Hosted a #SchoolWithSeth video town hall with nine classrooms from my district this morning. Grateful to the students for their thoughtful questions and proud to represent communities that are engaged and informed. pic.twitter.com/k9bIASuN5c— Seth Moulton (@sethmoulton) May 16, 2018


On Wednesday, May 16th,  Mrs. Carey’s US History II Honors classes had an opportunity to participate in a video conference with Congressman Seth Moulton, who was in his DC office. Burlington High was one of nine schools from District 6 that participated in the conference.


The conference was 45 minutes. Moulton introduced himself and then addressed 5 questions that were submitted prior to the conference. One of the questions he handpicked was from our Period 2 US History class, which addressed the second amendment. Other issues discussed were the decriminalization of marijuana, immigration, transportation improvements, school safety, and military spending.




As intriguing as the political discussions were, student takeaways were not only from the political issues but what Congressman Moulton had to say about future jobs, leadership and kindness.


In addressing a question about what jobs students should “train for”, Moulton talked about automation and robots and what jobs may not be available when this class graduates. He stressed the need for nurses, teachers electricians, plumbers, jobs that cannot be easily replaced by robots. His discussion of the need for creativity sparked a really strong positive reaction from the class. Additionally, his messages of kindness and learning from others really resonated with the class. He emphasized that despite some ideological differences with Republican colleagues, he constantly is learning new things from them. He spoke of the importance of being kind to others and to go and talk to individuals you might not always engage with because one can learn something from everyone.


Today, students wrote thank you notes to the Congressman. Despite the fact I gave them an email link they all opted to handwrite their notes. I just wanted to leave you with their words on the experience:


“You took both parties into account while discussing today’s topics. Reaching out with questions we asked was a special feeling knowing people in the government actually care and listen.”


“It shows that our government does care about the future adults of our country and inspires us to get involved.”


“I enjoyed hearing your thoughts about learning from others and being nicer to others as I think that it is really important for our country right now.”


“I appreciate how you stressed the importance of paying more attention to ‘lesser’ jobs in society. I want to have a creative job when I am older...sometimes dreaming big doesn’t mean studying hard to become a lawyer or a doctor, it can mean using your own talent to do something you enjoy.”


“I’m not a very political person but your talk inspired me to pay more attention to our community...it also reassured us that even though the government is crumbling, we can still piece it together.”

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