SPRING LAKE HEIGHTS — Spring Lake Heights School students in seventh and eighth grades participated in Youth Government Day on Tuesday, June 13, visiting municipal departments and holding their own mock borough council meeting.
At the meeting, seventh-graders discussed several resolutions they would like to see passed by their adult counterparts. Eighth-graders had a more relaxed day, making stops at the borough’s various departments to learn the daily ins and outs of the municipality.
According to Spring Lake Heights middle school social studies teacher Kevin Preston, the Youth Government day trip is a yearly tradition during his classes’ civics unit.
“The second half of seventh grade [social studies] they’re in civics class,” Mr. Preston said. “They’re learning about how the government works from the federal government down to local government, and everything that goes with that like the Constitution, our amendments, the election process—anything that fits under the civics umbrella.”
“This is the culmination of that unit,” he said. “In April we talked about how the different levels of government work, then we looked at the local government to see how local elections work, what the different departments are and the different positions in town.”
Mr. Preston then explained how the seventh-graders prepare for their council meeting by drafting resolutions for changes they want to see in the borough.
“They all then write a proposal on what they would do with Spring Lake Heights to make their town even better,” he said. “Maybe it’s adding something new or fixing something that needs updating…Every student in seventh grade writes this proposal and students then go the extra step and write an essay to apply for a position in town.”
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