Nashua resident Ryan Santoro and his Mock Trial Team from Classical Conversations “CC” of Barrington narrowly edged out their opponents from CC of South Berwick, Maine, for the win on Thursday, May 14.

Each team presented the case before a mock judge and jury with families and friends in attendance. After the coin flip, Team Barrington simulated the prosecution while Team South Berwick replicated the defense. During recess, the mock judge and jurors scored the first round then the teams swapped sides and repeated the process.

While both teams successfully obtained a “Not Guilty” verdict for their client, Team Barrington scored more points for the combined rounds. Team Barrington members were Santoro, Lilly Bean, A.J. Chase, Riley Johnson, Colin Powers, Caleb Terry and their tutor, Laura Zimmerman.

Mock Trial is a perfect one semester snap shot of classical education. Under the guidance of their tutor, students begin to learn the characters, vocabulary and rules of a court trial. While their tutor gradually backs away and allows the students to take the reins, the team wrestles with the information, forming strategy, and working together.

On the day of the Mock Trial, they display their rhetorical skills as they take everything they have learned during the semester and breathe life into their performances of assigned roles as attorneys and witnesses for the prosecution and the defense.

Classical Conversations supports home-schooling parents by cultivating the love of learning through a Christian world view in fellowship with other families. Students meet with their tutor and classmates once a week for six seminars: Grammar, Exposition & Composition, Debate, Research, Rhetoric and Logic. At home and under the authority of their parents, who are the primary teachers, students complete the assignments during the rest of the week so they are prepared to participate in challenge seminars. The tutor/parent/student partnership is a valuable relationship that fosters accountability for all the partners.

For more information, visit classicalconversations.com. It is accepting registrations for CC of Merrimack and other CC communities for the 2015-16 school year.