Walton Middle School

This semester's Civics & Economics class had a great visit to the Virginia State Capitol on November 24th.  For the first hour of the visit, we explored the Capitol with our guide.  The building is a showcase for the history of our Commonwealth, with artwork, artifacts and statues from Virginia's earliest days to the present.  Among the biggest hits with the kids was the life sized bronze statue of Albemarle County's most famous resident, Thomas Jefferson himself.

In his hands, Jefferson is depicted holding the plans for the Capitol which he designed from ancient Roman architecture he had studied in France.  Since we didn't have the marble he adored there, workman instead built the capitol out of brick covered in white painted stucco to make it look like marble.  Even the columns in front of the capitol are brick stucco over the trunks of massive trees cut to make them solid and straight.

The rotunda and its statue of George Washington were equally impressive, with the finely carved details cut into the marble such as tassles on Washington's uniform and the facial details copied from a plaster life cast of Washington's face.  As the tour guide commented, "Washington was a stickler for details, perserverance, and most of all manners.  Washington would have gladly accepted as visitors to his home such wonderful well behaved and polite children as Walton Middle School students."  Underfoot were ancient fossils preserved in the stone tiles laid in the floor of the rotunda.

After our tour, we were brought to the Chamber of the House of Delegates for their presentation.  An overview of the struture and rules for the chamber was followed by a lively legislative lawmaking session.  The kids elected a Clerk, Mr. Feiner, who read aloud the bill and a Speaker of the House, Madam Speaker Scott, who presided over a lively debate on the proposed bill from Delegate Morris.

 This education bill proposed segregating students into gender specific classrooms in order to improve student academic performance.  Debate was well thought out and articulately presented, ending with a vote of 6 Ayes and 39 Nays to defeat the proposed legislation. All and all, the kids came away with a new appreciation for the responsibility and difficulty of being an elected representative for the people of Virginia.