Elementary School Citizens

As I wrote last week, I was impressed by a session at the PSBA conference that described one way to give elementary school children a sense of ownership in their education. Those of us who participated in the recent board visit to Park Forest Elementary heard several examples of how citizenship skills and a sense of civic engagement are being developed in our local students.

Project Earth Force is a terrific example of "service learning" at the elementary school level. As in all service learning, the two most important aspects are: 1) student ownership (created initially by having students determine the project), and 2) tying the work to the curriculum.

Some examples of recent Earth Force projects:

•  A project that raised funds to bring one CFL into the home of each elementary student. (For the uninitiated, a CFL is an energy-efficient, compact fluorescent light bulb.)
•  An ongoing composting project
•  Raised gardens tended by the students and their families.

You can find out more about Earth Force, here.

Principal Donnan Stoicovy also gave an example of how elementary schools can begin the process of developing "responsible and involved citizens" – a goal for every State High graduate. Using weighted "five-fingered" voting, the students - K through 5 - selected what they considered the most important school issue.  The result of the students’ deliberation is a new set of lunchroom rules (including, for example: "don't be gross"), which also addressed the students' primary concern about seating policy.

(The principal, of course, had veto power over anything “inappropriate”.)