Arcadia Class Shows Its Constitutional Savvy

More than a third of them are foreign nationals, but they know their rights.

In fact, the Arcadia High School senior government class of instructor Ron Morris was judged to know more about constitutional rights than any other in the state. The class won the state competition in the 1991 National Bicentennial Competition on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in Sacramento.

And if students can raise $20,000 in travel costs by April, it’s on to the national finals in Washington, D.C.

The contest required students to answer questions and to make presentations on topics related to the U.S. Constitution, such as political philosophy and responsibilities of citizenship. All team members were questioned; the 28-member Arcadia team had to demonstrate depth and breadth of knowledge.

“I love the exciting, nit-picky things about the Constitution,” said Josh Hoffman, 17, who works 20 hours a week delivering ribs for a local restaurant and wants to be a lawyer.

The like backgrounds of the Constitution’s framers intrigued Hoffman. He defined the founding fathers as “a group of elitists: wealthy, white, male property owners.” For the competition, Hoffman was able to trace the extension of constitutional rights first to all white men, then to men of other races after the Civil War and finally to women around World War I.

Teammate Myong Yi, 17, born in Korea, noted that safeguards for individual liberties extend even further. “Now that I’ve studied the Constitution,” she said, “I realize how important it is in protecting our basic rights--protecting everyone, even non-citizens.”

Before her intensive study began, she said, her interest in the Constitution ranked about even with her interest in “what was happening in a small foreign country” or “taking out the garbage.

“I was sort of a child,” she said. “I didn’t know about world issues and everything that affects me.” Studying the Constitution “made me realize the importance of government and how we should be concerned about what goes on, because everything affects us.”

Angela Lin, 17, of Taiwan, didn’t speak a word of English when she arrived in the United States in 1983. Like the other nine foreign nationals on the team, she will have no voting rights when she turns 18, but has gained a profound respect for American government.

“I appreciate the Constitution more than American citizens,” she said, “who maybe have grown up in such a system and take it for granted.”