The Trial of the Century--21st Century Justice Helps Students prepare for 18th Century Trial

 "These kids were preparing as hard for their trials as real lawyers getting ready for a significant trial." Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Max Baer

Most Supreme Court Justices have put 5th grade long behind them but Pennsylvania Justice Max Baer returned recently to the elementary classroom for what Mt. Lebanon Markham Elementary School teacher Matthew Mikesell called a "magical hour and a half" during which Justice Baer helped Mikesell's students prepare for their upcoming classroom mock trial.  And this was no ordinary mock trial they were preparing for--the students were putting the father of our country, George Washington, on trial for murder! The Markham students tried a young George Washington for the murder of French Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville.  Though the mock trial is a fiction created by Mikesell, Jumonville's death was an actual event that helped spark the French and Indian War.  Washington's involvement in that death remains a mystery of history, but Mikesell's students gathered enough information on both the history of the period and the conduct of real trials to hold three separate mock trials, with Washington being convicted twice and acquitted once by the three different student groups.  You can see the students' work on the school district's webpage at http://www.mtlsd.org/markham_elementary/5thgrademocktrial.asp.  The trial was conducted live January 22-24, 2008 over the internet; it is still viewable on demand from the Mt. Lebanon site.

 The students were in period costumes that had been carefully researched and authentically prepared and they conducted a realistic modern courtroom exercise thanks to an extended course of study that included instruction from such guests as Justice Baer.  The mock trials made the 18th century come fabulously alive at Markham Elementary during a cold January week. At a time when the First Lady of Pennsylvania, Third Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Midge Rendell, is promoting mock trial as one of her Keystone Programs for promoting civic education, Mikesell showed how a committed teacher can combine history with creative teaching to promote the civic values of the rule of law, jury service and more.  Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Gerald Zahorchak featured the Markham elementary mock trial as a model civics program at the January 25th Pennsylvania Coalition for Representative Democracy School Summit.  Teacher Mikesell gives the credit for his lesson to many others, starting with Past PCSS President and current Board member Steve Bullick, the curriculum coordinator at Mt. Lebanon who provides the administrative support needed for teachers to try new ideas.  PA Citizen's Jim Wetzler and his successor at the Pennsylvania Department of  Education,  PDE Social Studies Coordinator Jeff Zeiders also share in Mikesell's success since it was attending their Governor's Institute for Social Studies on the French and Indian War that connected Mikesell to the scholars who shared with him the story behind the trial.

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