12 Hours And Counting: Remembering My Stint As A '84 Gary Hart Delegate

Less than 12 hours from now I'll be flying across the West toward Denver and the Democratic National Convention.  This will be my first convention - sort of.  In 1984, I was a Gary Hart delegate to the Model Presidential Nominating Convention here in Portland.  The convention - which drew over 4,000 high school students who would spend a year before the convention itself studying up on the race and related issues - also drew the major presidential candidates.  Bobby Kennedy.  Jimmy Carter.  George HW Bush.  Ronald Reagan.  Michal Dukasis.  Jesse Jackson.  Bill Clinton.  George W. Bush.  Two teachers, Jim Barlow and Bill Pressly, were the coordinators of this massive undertaking.  Bill worked with the students to produce a political platform while Jim concentrated on working with the student-run campaigns.  These conventions went on from 1964 to 2000.  My attention was captured forever by this exercise in political democracy (brought to you by public schools, no less).  So before I leave for Denver I want to say thank you to Jim and Bill for serving as teachers who valued crtical thinking and who made their students engage in studies that married real world experiences with text books and class room discussions.