Last week's downtown protest of Chicago Public Schools' decision to close 54 schools come June had a sizable contingent of student participants. Twenty-five of them were part of an Alternative Spring Break program coordinated by the Democracy Learning and Student Leadership Division of CPS. While the protest wasn't part of their daily agenda, these students attended at their own will. They applied lessons learned during a week of service in Pilsen to demand a more equitable system supportive of high-quality teaching and learning district wide.
During their four-day experience in Pilsen, students took part in community-building activities and learned about the history, culture, and current challenges the community faces. It was the third annual Alternative Spring Break offered by CPS, and students were recruited from the 16 schools who are piloting the Global Citizenship Initiative (GCI, supported, in part, with funding from the McCormick Foundation). The GCI is a civic learning initiative, which includes a stand-alone civics course, service-learning projects throughout high school, and site-based student leadership opportunities.
CPS' Jon Schmidt, who designed the Alternative Spring Break program with his Democracy Learning and Student Leadership Division colleague, Cristina Salgado, said that "each year (they) come to a different community, and it's essentially a community immersion experience that gives students (a deep understanding) of what's happening in one particular community from a variety of perspectives. What are all of the issues that are happening in the community? What are the organizations? Who are the leaders that are active in the community? What strategies do they use to build their own communities?"
The strategies students learned included community service, economic development, and community organizing. Last Wednesday, prior to the protest, students spent the day working with local organizations that use one or more of these strategies in service of the Pilsen community. Participants were asked later, which strategy best fit their own personality and skills, and their answers spanned the spectrum.
One student from Curie High School served in a local community center, working with children ages 9 through 13. He learned a great deal about community change throughout the week, holding high Pilsen's incredible transformation over the course of the past two decades, and attributing these changes to the actions of community members themselves.
Schmidt wants students to walk away from the experience with "... new ears and eyes for their own communities, and figure out how they can be involved." He continued, "We think that when they leave this experience they have a different perspective on their own community."
This clearly resonated with another student participant from Phoenix Military Academy, who claimed, "It's not so much learning about this community and its history, it's more of... what am I going to bring back to my community, what am I going to show, what am I going to change, and also do that within your schools as well."
A third participant from Chicago Academy High School agreed. She stated, "Students should get involved in this activity. It's like a life impact. I've learned so much from it, and I can teach students from my experience... and hope that they actually hear me and do it as well."
Student voice has been largely absent from the debates of the last year centering on teacher contracts and school closings. The standoff between the mayor and his appointed school board and the Chicago Teachers Union has often lost sight of the youth our schools are supposed to serve. The students who spent their spring break in Pilsen thrust themselves in the middle of this titanic struggle, and they stand equipped to elevate the conversation in service of their schools and the communities where they are located.