Highland Park students take lead on community issues
BY CHARLES BERMAN cberman@pioneerlocal.com February 20, 2012 3:36PM
Highland Park-02/17/12, Fri./Edgewood Middle School Caroline Berkman, a 8th grader goes over info about crosswalks in Highland Park during Project Citizen Friday at Edgewood Middle School. | Joe Shuman~For Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 24, 2012 8:24AM
Edgewood Middle School eighth-graders turned their classroom experience into their own bully pulpit last week by presenting and organizing a community campaign to address several local issues.
Jake Silbar, who is in Maggie Allard’s fourth-period English class, was among a group to lobby a local panel, headlined by Mayor Nancy Rotering, for enhanced crosswalk safety in Highland Park.
“We have heard many scary stories about crosswalks,” Silbar said. “After we studied and searched websites about crosswalks, we realized it’s an important issue to deal with.”
Locally, Silbar pointed to the crosswalk at Central Avenue and Second Street, the location of a horrific accident last May. An 11-year-old Highland Park boy, who was struck by a motorist while riding his bicycle across Central, underwent surgery for a broken leg and fractured skull.
“We really looked at the area near Port Clinton (Square) because it’s a very busy intersection there,” he added.
Silbar and his classmates recommended several public policy initiatives, including reflective and repainted crosswalks so they are more noticeable.
“Mayor Rotering told us it’s an important topic to discuss and that we should go forward and pursue it,” said Silbar, who will be among the Edgewood students to take their causes to a future City Council meeting.
Fellow eighth-grader Sydney Hirsch and her fifth period class addressed teen pregnancy.
Hirsch’s group plans to present the North Shore School District 112 School Board with its action plan. They intend to take the effort to the high school level, too, with a teen pregnancy awareness week at Highland Park High School
Adam Danzig’s class studied product testing on animals. Other classes tackled safety in the community, food waste, stray animal management, reducing plastic water bottle waste and child abuse
Edgewood teacher Maggie Allard lauded her 71 students for the work they put in on each topic. She said she was most impressed with the scope of her students work.
“They contacted professionals in the fields related to these issues, they reached out to community members and took surveys,” she reported. “They really took it up a step than past years because they are very passionate about the issues they are presenting.”
The Project Citizen assignment has long been a signature piece of District 112’s eighth-grade curriculum. The project not only stresses research, writing and presentation, but tasks the students to take their work further to effect change from the governmental level.
“It’s an authentic learning project,” Allard said. “It gives students a hand in what they want to change in our world. They can bring these tools to identify a problem in the future and come up with a solution and put it into action.”
The judges will select one class to present at a regional showcase with the possibility of continuing to the Illinois Project Citizen Showcase in Springfield.
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