Live from Music Row Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Executive Director of The National Constitution Bee Claudia Henneberry in studio to highlight the experience participants can look forward to at this year’s Bee on October 23rd.Â
Leahy: This is one of my favorite segments of the radio ever, because finally, we have a full-time executive director of the National Constitution Bee. This will be our fifth year and it’s just such a great event.
And Claudia, you’ve been doing this as a labor of love for the four previous years. And the amount of time you spend on this is just incredible. Tell people what this will be like.
By the way, the winner gets $10,000 the educational scholarship they can use for college or for private school if they’re still in high school.
Henneberry: It’s such a significant amount of money.
Leahy: $10,000 will be awarded to the winner via a check that day. We give these checks away from the Star News Education Foundation that day. Second place, $5,000, 3rd place $2,500. Last year, the winner was from Spring Hill.
The second went to Spring Hill High School in Maury. Jackson Carter, the second-place winner was from Independent High School in Williamson County. The third-place winner was, I think, a 10th grader from Illinois,
Henneberry: Illinois.
Leahy: Jackson, I think used the money for his first-year tuition at the University of Alabama. The second-place winner, I think put it in an educational savings account for college, was a sophomore that one-second place. She’ll be back gunning for first place. And then the third-place winner. I think they used it for a private school for their junior year.
Henneberry: I think I believe that’s what they said. That’s what they said they would do it.
Leahy: But here’s the good news. We physically give you the check that day and it’s made to the kid. A kid getting a check for $10,000 that’s incredible.
Henneberry: I can’t imagine as a high school kid or an eighth-grader, especially, I cannot imagine getting that amount of money just for reading a book and standing up there and telling us what they know.
Leahy: Nationalconstiutionbee.org is where you can sign up for this. October 23rd. It’s what, five weeks from now? It’s coming up!
Henneberry: It’s one month away from my daughter’s wedding.
Leahy: There you go, five weeks away from The National Constitution Bee. The book, by the way, is really of text. It’s about 180 pages of text, 20-21 chapters.
All you have to do is buy the book. It’s like $30, $35. Or if you really want it, you can just send us an email if you need the book and we’ll make arrangements. Just buy it and get it and then read the book.
Henneberry: Yes. Every question in The National Constitution Bee is based on this book. Every single question. And there are a lot of words in that book, whether it’s thick or not.
Leahy: There are a lot of words, a lot of concepts, a lot of definitions and if you’ve got a good memory in your discipline, you can really go through this in probably about a week or so.
Henneberry: Very impressive that the children, the students are able to discern all of the concepts that are written into it. It’s not just memorizing a word or a date.
Leahy: And you’re a former teacher.
Henneberry: Absolutely. I was a social studies teacher, primarily U.S. history. And then I was also taught English, but primarily history and political science.
Leahy: If somebody is listening right now, hey, I think I’ll sign up or I’ll have my son or daughter or my grandson or granddaughter sign up. Go to the nationalconstitutionbee.org. Sign up. You’ll start receiving emails about how this works. This is going to be in Brentwood at the Springhill Suites by Marriott.
Henneberry: On Town Center Way, Brentwood.
Leahy: Thank you. This is why you are the executive director. That’s why you’re in charge.
Henneberry: Yes.
Leahy: Not me. So it starts at 9:00 a.m. We need people there at about 8:00. Sign up. What’s the experience like for a high school students when they go to this event?
Henneberry: Well, they have to find the hotel first and then, of course, Town Center Way, right in the center, right in the heart of Brentwood, Springhill Suites.
Leahy: Springhill Suites by Marriott.
Henneberry: And they come in the doors if they want. They’re open at 8:00, they register, they come in and they show us their credentials.
We sign them in, we give them a name tag. They go into the room and they sit with their parents or their entourage or their fans. And they wait until things start at 9:00 a.m.
Leahy: Last year, we had about 25 kids. I think we’re looking to have 25 kids. Maybe we’ll have more. It’s been a little bit like pulling teeth to get public school teachers to really promote this.
We have one who’s really been promoting it. But besides, that one, not a lot. And so we don’t expect more than 25 kids, 30 kids.
Henneberry: Maybe we’re hoping for 50. 25 to 50.
Leahy: But okay. Think about this. All you have to do is read the book and show up. And let’s say if there are even 50 kids, you have a one out of 50 chance just by showing up.
Henneberry: What an investment of getting a $10,000 educational scholarship.
Leahy: You have a three out of 50 chance of getting $2,500 or more just by reading the book and showing up and answering questions.
Henneberry: Right. That’s pretty good. Not bad for a day’s work.
Leahy: Not bad at all.
Henneberry: Probably ends at 2:00 in the afternoon. That’s about it.
Leahy: Describe how it begins. Let’s say, like last year there were 25 kids up there. How does it proceed? We have judges, and there’s an MC, I think.
Henneberry: Yes. There’s this guy who shows up as MC each year, we don’t know where he comes from. He just somehow shows up.
Leahy: That would be me.
Henneberry: Michael Patrick. Michael Patrick Leahy. We introduce the judges.
Leahy: We say our welcome and talk about the judges and their role. How many judges this year?
Henneberry: We have three.
Leahy: Okay, you’re one of them.
Henneberry: I am one of them. There are always two men and me, I’m in the middle.
Leahy: But you run it.
Henneberry: And I do. And I have to say, okay, now we’re going to choose that student. That student grasped the idea of federalism better than the other kids.
Leahy: Now you get to that essay part of it, which is midway through it. That is absolutely my favorite part.
Henneberry: But going back to the beginning, we do the pledge. And this year, I understand we’re going to have a surprise. One member of our team who’s going to sing the national anthem.
Leahy: What! Do you have a surprise set up by a member of our team? I think I know who is gonna sing the national anthem. No, no, no. I am not singing the national anthem because we want people to stay.
Henneberry: Yes, we do.
Leahy: This would not work well if I sing.
Henneberry: No.
Leahy: Although I was a member of the recently famous Harvard Glee Club way back when.
Henneberry: Oh no.
Leahy: When you come to Nashville. And if you’re not really good, you just shut up when it comes to singing accept in church.
Henneberry: So we’re supposedly going to hear a rendition of our national anthem this year, which will be fabulous. And then, of course, we will maybe in the middle, we might have a special guest. I don’t know. We did last year.
Leahy: We did. We had Alan Dershowitz of Harvard Law School. He was great on Zoom.
Henneberry: Fabulous.
Leahy: We haven’t confirmed with him this year. We’re gonna try again. When we come back, we’re gonna describe what happens when the bell rings at 9:00 a.m. on October 23rd at the National Constitution Bee.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
