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A dozen social studies teachers from across the state traveled to the Indiana Statehouse on Wednesday to get a behind-the-scenes look at the judiciary and fresh ideas on civics education.
“It’s a great partnership with the court and it’s been great how accessible the judges and attorneys are,” Tim Kalgreen, director of civic education for the Indiana Bar Foundation, said.
“Behind the Curtain: The Judicial Branch” was hosted by the Court of Appeals of Indiana and the Indiana Bar Foundation. The idea first developed from conversations about how to help teachers implement the new civics education requirement that the Indiana General Assembly passed in 2021.
Educators started their day in the Indiana Supreme Court courtroom, where they did introductions and got to hear the history of the state’s judicial branch from Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert Altice.
Altice also brought out the appellate court’s recent Sandra Day O’Connor Award for the Advancement of Civics. The court earned the award for its Appeals on Wheels program.
Next, the teachers got to learn about some of the legal language they were going to hear in the oral argument they were going to sit in on. Judicial law clerk Jessica Ballard-Barnett explained the difference between when the court is looking at an abuse of discretion issue and when they’re not.
Heading next to the COA’s courtroom, the teachers sat in on the oral arguments for James Ramsey v. State of Indiana, 22A-CR-2877. They watched as attorneys for both parties argued their case before the panel comprised of Altice and Judges Melissa May and Elizabeth Tavitas.
Afterward, they asked questions of the attorneys.
Zach Stock described himself and his opposing counsel for the day, state’s attorney Catherine Brizzi, as “adversaries but not adversarial.”
One of the teachers noted how Stock reserved five minutes for rebuttal and asked if he always did that.
Stock said the amount of rebuttal time he reserves changes. He explained how once, when he was arguing before the Indiana Supreme Court, he saved 10 minutes for rebuttal, only giving him 10 minutes for his argument. But he added that may not be the case for most attorneys.
Another teacher asked how far the attorneys get in their planned arguments before the judges start asking questions.
“You maybe get through your opening before it gets derailed,” Brizzi said.
She added that it can be difficult to get back on track afterward, but most of the time, once the panel is done asking questions, they’ve covered what had been planned.
Brizzi said she has argued before the appellate court in the past at a traveling oral argument with a very large audience. Both she and Stock agreed that once they’re up at the podium and their time is ticking, they’re focused on their argument and the judges, not the people watching.
The educators then headed to a lunch with several Court of Appeals judges.
Clarissa White, a teacher at Indianapolis Public School 51, said it was a great experience and the first time she’d been at the Statehouse.
“You don’t usually get this type of experience at programs they have,” White said.
Warren Central High School social studies teacher Mary Simmons agreed, saying it was incredible that the attorneys were such “open books.”
“It’s kind of something you wouldn’t normally get unless you knew them as personal friends or something,” Simmons said.
After getting a behind-the-scenes tour of the Statehouse and a look at Judge Peter Foley’s chambers, the teachers got to participate in two of Judge Leanna Weissmann’s civics games.
“Channel your baddest sixth grader,” Weissmann told the teachers as she had them move around for an interactive, multiple-choice activity.
The game asked questions on voting, the current governor and term lengths of House representatives, and the teachers had to move to the corner of the room they thought represented the correct answer.
Weissmann added that if they play the game with their classes, they can ask their students why they chose the answers, and what they think of the laws.
“That’s a good way of engaging them in the process and reminding them that they are future rule-makers,” she said.
The second game they played was one Weissmann has been bringing to schools since 2001. It involves several cards with information on the signers of the United States Constitution.
Some of the cards were highlighted, and everyone would stand up. Weissmann would then have the players stay standing if they had certain things in common with the signer on the card.
There were only three cards with stars on them: Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and George Washington. They all have something in common — they’re on money.
Lastly, the teachers sat down in the Supreme Court Law Library and discussed some of their takeaways as well as lesson plans provided by the Indiana Bar Foundation.
Kalgreen and Anne Fuchs, director of communications for the COA, both reminded the teachers to reach out and stay in touch. They added that judges at both the trial and appellate levels would like to visit classrooms.
“We’re really excited to try something different other than just an academic, have a professor tell you things,” Kalgreen said. “We wanted to embed you in government, so you actually got to experience government.”
He added that he hoped they would go back to their schools and tell their colleagues, so next year they can be bigger and better.
Mishawaka High School teacher Shelly Yoder said it was really nice to see things in action.
“I really loved being able to talk to the judges at lunch and being able to ask them questions about Indiana’s judicial branch in general,” Yoder said. “I really enjoyed talking to the lawyers after the case to kind of hear about their jobs.”
She added that it’s important for students to learn about state government and not just focus on the national level.
“If the kids are going to have to come into contact with the judicial branch, it’s going to be the state of Indiana,” Yoder said. “So it’s better to know about what’s going on in Indiana.”
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