KIDS PROTEST PROJECT

This is an excellent exercise for students in advocacy and civics. It gives them a chance to have their voices heard and exercise their freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. It is also a great opportunity for them to make use of their writing skills. If you are interested in doing this project, please contact Paula Seefeldt: kennapj@hotmail.com or Cynthia Wachtell: wachtell@yu.edu to coordinate a date.

Letter Writing

1. Arrange to have one or more teachers in your school participate.
2. Have all the students in the teacher’s class(es) discuss the issue of the budget cuts and then write letters, addressed to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, to protest the budget cuts.
   
   
   Hints:
   
   • Have students discuss the importance of education.
   • Teach students what a budget is.
   • Introduce age-appropriate information about the budget cuts.
   • Discuss democracy and different types of protests.
   • Remember: The idea is to make the kids feel empowered. They may be too young to vote, but they are not too young to write!
   
   
3. Gather letters and make two copies of each of them. (One copy should be kept for future reference, one copy should be taken to Tweed Courthouse for the students to read and to keep, and the original copy will be delivered to Tweed (in a LARGE envelope, see #4).
4. Have some or all of the students make a giant envelope for the delivery of the letters (addressed to: Chancellor Joel Klein, Department of Education) and possibly some large signs (i.e. “Chancellor Klein, Don’t Cut a Dime” or “Where are you Chancellor Klein?”)
5. Contact all parents of kids in the class(es) and invite them to be part of the group that will deliver the letters to Tweed. (We found that personally asking the parents, after sending an initial email explaining the project, worked best.)
6. Email the text of two or three of the best letters to Cynthia and Paula for PR purposes. (We will only use kids’ first names.)
7. Be sure to take lots of photos of the kids at Tweed. Media sources might request photos afterwards, and we would like to post additional photos on our web site.

The key is to make sure that the students have a positive experience and remain well-behaved. They should not be confrontational or disruptive. (No chanting, please.) Other students will be arriving on other days, and we do not want to incur the wrath of the security staff at Tweed Courthouse.

1. Travel as a group, immediately after school on your designated day, to Tweed Courthouse, in lower Manhattan, located at 52 Chambers Street. Click HERE to view map. Once the kids arrive at Tweed Courthouse, have them sit together on one side of the steps. Give them the large envelope and other signs to hold. (There is currently some scaffolding on the steps, and the security staff does not want kids running or playing on the steps.)



SUBWAYS:
• 2, 3 to Park Place
• A, C to Broadway-Nassau Street
• J, M to Fulton Street or …
• R, W to City Hall
• 4, 5, 6 to Brooklyn Bridge station or Fulton Street


2. Wait for 5 -10 minutes to see if Chancellor Klein will appear on the steps to announce the full restoration of the Department of Education (DOE) budget …
3. While waiting, the students can read aloud their letters one by one (or a selection thereof).
4. If Klein does not appear … deliver the letters to a member of the personnel of the DOE. Someone might come outside to receive the letters. If not, a child or two and an adult can be designated to take the letters inside to the security desk. (A staff member at the security desk will call someone from the correspondence office – known as “the strategic response group” – to come and receive the letters).
5. If any members of the media show up, be as courteous and helpful as possible. Offer to have some of the kids read their letters aloud. Explain the mission of the Kids Protest Project and encourage other parents / schools / kids to participate.

MANY THANKS!!!

Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.

~James A. Garfield, July 12, 1880
20th president of the United States