| | November 9, 2006 |
| Roskam, and the NY Times, visit Franklin
 During his campaign, newly-elected United States Congressman Peter Roskam visited his alma mater Benjamin Franklin to talk to students about state government. His race against Tammy Duckworth drew national attention, and in the photo shown here, a photographer from The New York Times catches Roskam in the Benjamin Franklin Library 'swearing in' a student into his role as a state senator from Galena. Roskam said he first became interested in government while a student at Ben Franklin, and that at Hadley, he loved the eighth grade unit on the Constitution. 'The best law ever passed is the Constitution,' he said.
Roskam led the students through a lighthearted enactment of a bill’s process through the legislature. In this case, the bill in question proposed that 10-year-olds be allowed to drive ('I would never vote for 10-year-olds to drive,' he told the kids, 'I have a 10-year-old in my house!'). Throughout the simulation, students learned about the structure and process of the legislature, including terms such as amendment, testimony, chamber, senate, pros, cons, bill, majority, and veto. At the end, amid a lot of laughter, Roskam told the students, 'I hope I brought you relatively unscathed through the general assembly.'
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