More than 100 students from across Simcoe County exchanged the classroom for the political arena on Friday.
Students from seven area high schools descended on the Simcoe County District School Board’s Education Centre in Midhurst to participate in the 34th annual Model UN, where they took on the role of member countries to debate the issues of social-media responsibility, UN Security Council reform and global vaccine accessibility.
“Students have to try to represent the views and beliefs of their chosen country. It’s an academic competition … and each issue is broken down into sessions," explained Rob Howatson, a teacher at Banting Memorial High School in Alliston and co-ordinator of this year’s event.
"First, they debate them in regional meetings and they have open, lively debate in there and are scored for their contributions to that. Then they come into the big room for the General Assembly and students put their name in to come and give a speech to the assembly here,” he added. “It’s great to be back doing it again. It’s interesting, because usually you have some repeat customers … but no one here has ever seen this."
This is the first year the event has taken place since 2019.
“It’s a great way to delve into global politics, looking at some of the big issues that are taking place in the world," Howatson said. "Beyond that, it’s the big skills of communicating, debating, doing some research and pushing past your fear of standing up and talking in front of 100 people in a big room. There are a lot of students who do it because they love the politics aspect and the debate aspect, but there are just as many that just want to get out of their comfort zone a little bit."
Friday's event included nine teams from seven Simcoe County high schools, including Bear Creek Secondary School, Innisdale Secondary School and Maple Ridge Secondary School in Barrie, Bradford District High School, Orillia Secondary School, Twin Lakes Secondary School, and Banting Memorial.
Michael Jardine, 17, was one of those students. He said he heard about the opportunity from Howatson, his Grade 12 history and civics teacher, who presented the event as a “fun and engaging day” where students would have the opportunity to learn about different countries by putting themselves in their shoes and then getting to argue on that country’s behalf on different topics.
“The idea of getting a new, broader perspective on different countries around the world — and Haiti, a country I don’t know a lot about — was just really exciting to me,” Jardine said.
Each school is given the names of a handful of different countries and participants are then able to select from those, Jardine explained.
“I asked to be Haiti, because it was one of the few countries that I hadn’t had the chance to learn a lot about," he added.
The experience was a positive one, Jardine said.
“The regional meetings, at least the ones that I am in, have been really fluid. Everyone has interesting points of views and you can tell people have really done their research," he added.
Jardine, who said he may one day consider pursuing a career in politics, said he felt the opportunity was a great way for students to learn about things beyond the four walls of the classroom.
“It takes a lot of effort to do the research and learn your part, but it gives you so many skills in speaking and research, which are really important," he said. "I think it’s important to learn as much as you can about different perspectives and points of view. I think this is a really good way to learn about how the world makes its decisions."
Myah Veenstra, a Grade 11 student at Elmvale District High School, said she has been taking a global perspectives course at Innisdale Secondary School in Barrie, and said her class was participating as part of their coursework.
Veenstra, who was representing Ecuador, admitted she was extremely nervous leading up to the day-long event at the school board's administration centre, but said it also served as a great chance for her to step outside of her comfort zone and gain confidence.
“It’s been a really cool event. I think it’s cool to see how students voice their opinions and how they are able to go into such a debate for a country they didn’t really know about before," she said. "I am really shy at public speaking, so I think it really helped me to speak out at the general assembly and get over that nervousness.
"It just helps me to know more about the world."
