Constitutional Convention - Day 1

On Monday we began a mock Constitutional Convention in class in order to better understand the issues that faced the delegates from each state in creating the actual Constitution. Each student has been assigned a delegate, and must act and vote the way that that person did, while I preside over the Convention as George Washington.

To open up the convention, we first discussed the rules of order and parliamentary procedure. We then took a “vow of secrecy”, to remind us that the original delegates were not allowed to speak about the convention to the public.

The first issue we discussed was about how the people would be represented in our new government. Delegates from the larger states wanted a legislature (congress) with representation based on the population of each state. Other delegates felt that all of the states should be represented equally.

None of the classes were able to reach the majority vote needed to adopt either idea. Some of them, however, were able to reach a compromise solution.


Delegates confer with each other before a vote: