High School Leadership Conference 2009

Dear HSLC Mentor,

Thank you for participating in the High School Leadership Conference! This folder is for your reports. This is a public forum and we encourage your professors and teachers to review your journal entries for feedback. Make sure your report is appropriate for public viewing.

Your report need to be at least 500 words (single-spaced, 12 pt font, 1” margin). It is your responsibility to save a copy of your report. Additionally, it should focus on the content of the conference and include key concepts of International Relations, as well as specific student responses.

In order to submit your report correctly, you have to hit "Post Reply" and NOT "New Topic." Selecting the latter will post your report in a folder that is not yours.

When logged in, an edit button appears at the top of each of your own posts. You can always go back to your report and change anything you wish before the entry's deadline. Be sure that your report is saved to your own personal computer as back-up.

Your HSLC Report will be due by 9:00am on April 24, 2009. After the deadline, your folder will be locked and no late reports will be accepted.

Again thank you for your participation in the Conference!
- CALIS Staff

LATE/APPROVED - Craig - 5/4/09

At the High School Leadership Conference this weekend, I was impressed with my students’ level of preparation. They had thoroughly studied the case studies provided as part of the conference materials as well as found their own historical examples and theories to pull from. For example, during the voting process when they were trying to decide whether to support the Bush cuts or the Obama plan—a topic, it should be noted, that they had not specifically planned for—one of the students pointed to the problematic Trickle Down Theory to support her choice of the Obama plan. She explained that the Trickle Down Theory suggests that if you cut taxes for the rich and they are therefore able to spend more money, then the money they spend will trickle down through the rest of society, boosting the economic position of all. This effect, though, did not pan out as planned, my student asserted, since we still have large income disparity in the United States. For this reason, she suggested her group go with the Obama plan instead of sticking with the Bush cuts that were based on a faulty hypothesis. I was impressed by the student’s ability to make such connections and arguments on the fly, as they were first faced with the tax debate the day of the conference itself.

Though my team was well versed on the issues and the cases, they struggled a little with understanding the Hybrid position. The other positions, Economic Liberal and Social Liberal, are more straightforward and well defined. My team found themselves getting caught in the middle of debates, not really sure how to participate. Because of the ambiguity of the Hybrid position, they tended to fall back on abstract, non-committal statements and generalities rather than advocating a particular policy. After the first round of debates, I helped them form some concrete positions on the issues. We pulled from both the Economic Liberal position and the Social Liberal position to create policy that served as a kind of compromise between the two. This worked best with the debate about what should be done about the environment. The Economic Liberals and Social Liberals were each stubborn in their policy goal with the Economic Liberals favoring market mechanisms and the Social Liberals demanding regulation. My Hybrid group then proposed a cap-and-trade scheme, which combines the market ideal of competition with the more qualitative concern of climate change. This compromise turned out to be a rousing success. The Green Track actually voted unanimously on this third option rather than sticking to the extremes. This outcome demonstrates how powerful the Hybrids can be as a centrist position if they come up with concrete policy alternatives.

The students were certainly well prepared and could perform under pressure. For example, one of my students was subject to particularly harsh scrutiny presenting in front of the entire conference at the end of the day, but she held her own and defended her position. Overall, all of my students were engaged in the discussion and made meaningful contributions. I think the conference was a success and I was very proud of my team.