Berkeley County Students and Faculty Visit the Byrd Center

By Jay Wyatt

On Monday, October 23, the Byrd Center welcomed 80 high school students and faculty from Berkeley County Public Schools for a day-long workshop focusing on government and deliberate discourse. The students came from all four Berkeley County high schools: Martinsburg, Spring Mills, Hedgesville, and Musselman, and each are participants in their school’s Leadership Program . The workshop allowed students to learn from historical records as well as the opportunity to respond to current events in a group discussion.​

Students and faculty gather in the Auditorium for opening remarks at the beginning of the workshop.

Upon arriving at the Byrd Center, students were greeted by our Director of Programs and Research, Dr. Jay Wyatt, as well as Manny Arvon, Superintendent of Berkeley County Public Schools, and West Virginia State Senator John Unger. Students also received a welcome to Shepherd University from the admissions office.
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The first session of the workshop students attended was led by Dr. Charles Flanagan, Director of Educational Programs for the Center for Legislative Archives (National Archives and Records Administration). Students participated in a “mapping the constitution” exercise, identifying the six major ideas of the United States Constitution and comparing them to determine how the framers conceptualized the structure and separation of powers in our federal government. Dr. Flanagan has conducted this lesson plan at the Byrd Center before for our annual Teacher Training Institute.

Dr. Charles Flanagan (left) guides students through the "Mapping the Constitution" workshop developed by the Center for Legislative Archives (NARA).

​After mapping the Constitution, students and their teachers moved to an immersive exercise where they investigated historical documents to become aware of how policy makers respond to critical disasters in their districts, specifically how West Virginia’s senators, congressmen, and state officials responded to the disastrous 1985 Election Day Floods. This session was facilitated by Danielle Emerling, Assistant Curator, Congressional and Political Papers Archivist for the West Virginia University Libraries. The documents which students investigated in this exercise were drawn from the West Virginia and Regional History Centers’ Governor Arch Moore, Jr. papers as well as the Byrd Center’s Robert C. Byrd and Harley O. Staggers, Jr. Congressional Papers collections. 

Students investigate historical records from the 1985 floods in West Virginia.

​Students had the opportunity to explore original archival documents as they toured the Byrd Center’s collections with our archivist, Jody Brumage. During the tour, students learned about the types of records the Byrd Center preserves in its collections and about the members of congress whose papers make up the center’s archives. After touring the stacks, everyone gathered in the reading room to view selected photographs, documents, and objects from congressional delegations that Senator Byrd and Congressman Staggers, Sr., took during their careers. The presentation included Senator Byrd’s first international trip in 1955, Congressman Staggers, Sr.’s NATO delegation trip in 1963, Senator Byrd’s meeting with the Shah of Iran in 1978, both members’ visits to China in the 1970s, and lastly, Senator Byrd’s meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985.

Students gather in the reading room to view original documents, photographs, and artifacts from the Robert C. Byrd and Harley O. Staggers, Sr. Congressional Papers collections.

​Having completed the mapping of the constitution and explored historical records and events of the constitution in action, the students concluded the workshop by applying those experiences in a deliberative conversation led by Jay Wyatt that focused on finding ways to overcome polarization and partisanship and improve public discourse. This session was modeled on a public forum workshop titled “The Divided State of America:  How Can we Get Work Done Even When We Disagree?” that was developed by the Kettering Foundation in collaboration with the Association of Centers for the Study of Congress (ACSC).  Students participating in the forum discussed how polarization and partisanship have impacted their communities and considered a variety of pathways that could lead to improved public discourse and more effective collaborative problem solving.

Jay Wyatt introduces students to the deliberative conversation workshop.

​A core part of the Byrd Center’s mission is to facilitate a greater public understanding about Congress, the Constitution, and representative democracy, and it was our pleasure to host such civically-engaged students, faculty, and administrators.  Stay tuned for news about similar events in the future.