On Wednesday, November 1, School Meeting started with a typical schedule — class cheers, a mindful moment, and the school cheering song — until Justin Ahn ’24 (who is also a Co-Managing Editor for the Scroll) and Isaac Bakare ’24 appeared on stage in 18th century bench wigs. The pair debated as Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson regarding whether the United States Constitution should be rewritten every 18 years: this year’s Deerfield Forum topic.
The scholars participating in this year’s Forum include Jamelle Bouie, a New York Times opinion columnist who considers the Constitution anti-democratic, and Akhil Reed Amar, a Yale University constitutional law professor who has a more positive view of the Constitution, according to Philosophy and Religious Studies Chair Doug Kremm. Jeannie Suk Gersen, a professor at Harvard Law School, will serve as the moderator for the discussion. In preparation for this event, all students were given copies of the Constitution Thursday, September 28, during an advisory sit down lunch.
The Deerfield Forum is a relatively new tradition. The first Forum, “Facts, Falsehoods, and the Future” was held in 2022. In 2023, the Forum focused on “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Being Human.” This year, the Academy chose the Constitution as the topic of the Forum.
The Forum is meant to be an opportunity for students to understand different viewpoints on a specific topic from lead scholars with varying opinions. The idea was first proposed by History Teacher Joseph Lyons as a way to expose students to civil discourse and respectful disagreement.
Head of School John Austin explained the purpose of the Forum in his 2020–2021 Action Plan to Strengthen Equity, Inclusion, and Campus Culture. “The Forum will model scholarly and civic engagement,” he wrote, “and, by staging conversations among scholars, professionals, and civic leaders, promote constructive dialogue and active open-mindedness— long a defining feature of Deerfield’s intellectual culture.”
The Forum “deliberately avoid[s] the format of a formal debate,” said Dr. Kremm, to “see if the [discussion participants] can find some common ground.”
Dr. Kremm assembled an unofficial planning committee of students to get the student body excited about the Constitution, including Ahn, Bakare, Tasman Hancock ’24, Davey Mazur ’24, David Peirce ’24, Billy Tang ’25, and Claire Kepner ’25.
Bakare expressed his enthusiasm for the upcoming Forum, saying, “The options Deerfield have given us to dissect what [the Constitution] is saying, what idealizing claims on an ideal country and nation to look like is a very fruitful experience…will enrich every Deerfield student’s intellectual experience.”
Dr. Kremm explained that it is difficult for a leading constitutional scholar to compress decades of research into ten minutes. So, he is planning to introduce more nuanced content in various ways. He said that one option is to host brief introductory conversations at school meetings followed by optional events after sit down meals, giving students more opportunities to interact with the speakers.
Dr. Kremm is also looking into exploring the Constitution through a number of different perspectives, including those of the arts and sciences. He said, “I’ve had a conversation with [Math Teacher] Sam Leiterman-Long, who is interested in questions about the relation between mathematics and the Constitution. He’d like to give a presentation and host some discussion around whether the Constitution is a democratic document or not.”
The planning committee has made extensive efforts to get the student body curious and notified about this spring’s Forum.
Bakare explained that he hopes students will embrace excitement about the event. “No matter how good the topic is, or deep the topic is, if the student body is not engaged or very excited to discuss it or see discussions about it, then it’ll just flop,” he said. “So getting the vibes going, getting people excited about it is important and it’s going to make
