Park Forest Elementary students Heather Haller (left) and Maia Egan show off their recycling efforts in their posters. Photo by Megan Fricker

by Tunomukwathi Asino

Students at Park Forest Elementary School are learning what it means to be active participants in a democracy, lessons that have won the school national recognition and motivated students to collective action.

While the trend in public education has moved toward preparing students for the workplace, Principal Donnan Stoicovy is preparing them to become active citizens in a civil society.

“I still believe that the purpose of public education is to help students to be ready to live in a democracy and be part of that,” Stoicovy said. “How do you learn about a democracy unless you live a democracy?”

From helping to write the rules for homeroom to creating a more pleasant lunchroom, from improving recycling efforts to collecting books for children in Africa, first through fifth grade students have been involved and often initiate and lead the process.

Stoicovy explained that it’s not students making all the decisions about the curriculum or the school. Formal classes provide many opportunities as well.

“Social studies is really important; how do you get along with people, how you act in a democracy,” she said. “Right now it often feels like a lot of our legislators and politicians don’t have really good lessons in how to disagree with one another and we want to teach kids how to do that.”

When there is an issue, Stoicovy said students will write or e-mail her or ask to have lunch with her.

Some students wrote letters asking for a compost bin in the teachers’ lounge, for example.

One of the students’ letters read: “I think we need a compost bin in the teachers’ lounge. Can you please put your compost in it like paper and fruit. Are you willing to do it so you can compost in the teachers’ lounge? Please! Our teacher told us the teachers’ lounge does not have a compost.”

Another group wanted the lunch salad to change. Fifth grade teacher Jennifer Cody explained that one of her students was lactose intolerant but loved salad and was very frustrated by the salad because it contained a lot of shredded cheese.

The student was discussing this with a friend who was a Muslim and she had a similar problem; she couldn’t eat the salad because it had ham and she couldn’t eat pork. Another girl was a vegetarian and could not choose that salad because of the meat. Some of the students that did not have any issue with the salad wanted to be helpful and were very outspoken, Cody said.

The girls went to Cody and asked if they could do something about it. Cody encouraged them to come up with their own plan. Now they have implemented it, speaking in front of the entire school about the issue and going from classroom to classroom surveying other students’ salad preferences. They took the plan they found consensus for - salad with a selection of toppings on the side - to the cafeteria manager, asked clarifying questions and are now busy developing a presentation for the head of the food department in the school district.

Cody hopes the district makes concessions, even if they are small. She said the students are shooting for the stars hoping to change the salad offerings district-wide.

Recycling is also another issue that students at Park Forest Elementary School are passionate about. Third grade teacher Ron Meyers and his students were talking about recycling when his class of children took the initiative to help recycle some of the plastic milk bottles the school uses.

So far, he said they have collected thousands of milk bottles. Meyers explained how that project was then used as a learning tool, taking the information gained while recycling and implementing it in math lessons including estimation, counting and sorting. It developed into a research project, where students learned how much energy it takes to create a pound of plastic, and then calculated how much energy went into creating all the bottles used by the school.

“I think anytime you can empower children, that’s a good thing,” Meyers said.

And like with many schools, Park Forest students also get involved in humanitarian projects. When the earthquake struck Haiti, students sold pins and donated the money to the Red Cross. Students learned about Haiti, where it was located and what it was like in Haiti. They also learned more about what an earthquake is, instructional support teacher Marion Wheland said.

“We jumped up and down in our places for a little over a minute, so that they can feel what it would be like to be in an earthquake that long,” Wheland said.

Students also worked to raise books for a school in Swaziland, a country in Southern Africa. The project was called the “African Book Project” and was in collaboration with students from Penn State, Wheland said.

The goal was to collect between 1,000 and 2,000 books, but they ended up collecting 11,000 books, Wheland said. She explained that the project started after a former student teacher sent an e-mail informing staff members at the school that he was working with 900 students and 30 teachers and they had no books.

Last year, Park Forest Elementary School was recognized as a “school of success” by the Education Commission of the States (ECS), a nonprofit organization based in Denver, and the National Center for Learning and Citizenship (NCLC). The school was one of only 10 in the country receiving that designation.

“The schools were selected based on their support of five elements critical to the successful, school-based integration of service-learning - shown to lead to greater student achievement and success; leadership, curriculum and assessment, professional development, community-school partnerships and continuous improvement,” the announcement read. Park Forest Elementary received $10,000 over two years to expand its service-learning initiatives.

Wheland explained that success is defined differently than the best scores and said success is how teachers are engaging students, including in decision-making.

“What we are doing is really to look at the civic engagement of students,” she said.

Principal Stoicovy agreed.

“That’s part of our belief at the school,” she said. “Is helping children to see examples of being involved and being part of a democracy.”

Student Kate Selleck recycles by dispensing plastic bottles in proper receptacles. Photo by Megan Fricker