After 10 years of living in Oak Park and three years of managing development for Oak Park-River Forest Food Pantry, I am convinced of a few things:
1) Oak Park residents are amazingly generous with their time, money and talents in support of a good cause.
2) Oak Park has some of the best-managed community outreach programs you will find anywhere.
3) As community members and parents, we can do a better job of involving our children in community education and service during their elementary school years.
Through school, community and PTO programs, we have an opportunity to engage students in hands-on community education projects, fostering ethics and responsibility. Kids enjoy learning about their own communities because lessons are meaningful and they can see results.
This type of community-based learning can complement math and social science curriculums. One relevant and timely example would be a study of local elections. Why not have students investigate the causes of low voter participation in local elections? Students could survey different segments of potential voters to find out who votes and why. They could qualitatively and quantitatively evaluate the impact of awareness, accessibility to the polls, voting days and hours, etc. Students could implement strategies to address obstacles to voting, write to local elected officials, and make posters to remind people about Election Day.
Community education starts children on an early path to good citizenship. We all want the next generation of Oak Parkers to be just as engaged in the community, if not more so, as the current one. We want them to leave things better than they found them. Community education and service push children to think beyond themselves to envision a better society. Let’s work together to make sure all the kids in D97 have access to community education opportunities.
Rita Kahn is a candidate for the District 97 school board.