Oak Forest HS Mannequin Challenge Recreates Passage of 13th Amendment

High schools are known to be beehives of activity. Walking down a hallway, one can hear teachers lecturing their classes, and students presenting information to their class.

Students in Oak Forest High School social studies teacher Kristy Collins’s class expected the same thing when walking in one day. Instead, she informed them they would be spending the class period stock still, without talking. Collins decided to have the class take the mannequin challenge and recreate Congress after the passage of the 13th Amendment.

Collins came up with the fun assignment and the idea to pit her four Honors American History classes against each other in a friendly competition and her sixth hour class emerged victorious.

The class has been studying some serious things about life in the union before the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery.

Mrs. Collins said, “After an analysis of Lincoln's political career including reading articles about the 1860 and 1864 elections and the tactics used to campaign, we compared that to candidates today. The analysis also included Lincoln's suspension the Writ of Habeas Corpus and the Emancipation Proclamation. We determined that Lincoln's political ruthlessness was used to preserve the Union, advance the highest ideals, and move the country to the next stage of moral development. We watched clips of the movie, Lincoln. We read our sources and watched the clips as Lincoln traded favors, handed out government jobs, and made political promises in order to get the votes necessary to pass the amendment that would abolish slavery. When the 13th Amendment was passed in Congress on January 31, 1865, it was the most jubilant and reactive our Congress had ever been over any decision. We recreated that with our mannequin challenge.”

The 6th hour winning entry can be seen above or here: https://goo.gl/aUqEQf . The winning class was: Jessica Andriola, Enrico Esteban, Marissa Faletti, Hutton Flores, Andrew Hults, Jake Ishler, Brian Kuenster, Jasmin Mata, Hannah McMaster, Gabriella Muniz, Conlin Murray, Tara Neylon, Andrew O’Connell, Joseph Pagnusat, Zachary Raber, Travis Reid, Jayne Rush, Yazeed Salah, Grace Stahnke, Samuel Stahnke, Ashley Suchy, and Taylor Valuch.

Collins admits that Lincoln wasn’t present for the passage of the 13th Amendment but the class felt he had to be represented!