Tag Archives: New Haven Free Public Library

Kid Governor Rocks!

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Screen Shot 2016-08-17 at 9.56.25 AMI wish our current Presidential candidates had the platform advocated by Connecticut’s Kid Governor Elena Tipton.

She’s all about spreading kindness and has delivered on her “Campaign for Kindness” platform with a three-point plan: add Buddy Benches to school playgrounds, the Kindness is Kool blog, and designating the 13th of each month as Kindness Day.

Practical, actionable, low budget.  Campaign promises that can be delivered!

Brian Cofancesco in his signature bow tie

But first, Kid Governor?  You’re wondering, what is that?  The brain-child of Brian Cofrancesco, part of the Connecticut Public Affairs Network and Head of Education for Connecticut’s Old State House, the Kid Governor is an elected office held by a 5th grader as a result of a democratic process.  The program has also provided 5th-grade teachers with curricula to teach students about democracy, the three branches of government, being a citizen, voting–you know, our old civics lessons.

Participating schools nominate one student.  If more than one student is interested, a primary is held.  The students research an issue and create speeches for the primary.

Then the selected student develops a campaign video, and 5th graders around the state vote to select their Kid Governor.

This inaugural year, four girls and three boys campaigned.  They were from public schools along with one Monetessori, and their issues included gang prevention, standing up to bullying, access to technology, and school spending.  Serious stuff.  There’s also one about how “recess matters,” advocating for more free time for over-scheduled kids.  Right on!

After watching the campaign videos, I can say the issues and solutions were compelling.  It was a tough choice.  I imagine Elena’s exuberance and the actionability of her ideas pulled her through.  About 800 of the state’s 1200 5th graders voted in the election.  What a turnout!  Democracy in action!

Oh, and the Kid Governor got inaugurated at the Old State House last November, swearing an oath and all, with the state’s adult elected officials in attendance.

This year, 15 cities got involved, and Brian is working hard to grow participation now that the pilot year has been so successful.

Kid Governor Elena Tipton

Kid Governor Elena Tipton

I met Kid Governor Elena Tipton at the New Haven Free Public Library, where she presented her three-point plan to a full house of parents and children.  Her poise and ease in front of the room no doubt has been built with a year of traveling around Connecticut; “the funnest” part of being Kid Governor, she said, is “getting to meet people across the state,” made easy with her mom as driver.

Tipton’s plan has led to Buddy Benches in ten schools so far.  This concept comes from Christian Buck, a student in Pennsylvania.  The idea is to spread kindness through inclusion and building friendship.  How does it work?  Go to the bench, and ask someone sitting there to play or to talk and walk.  The concept is simple but effective for counteracting isolation and bullying.

Kid Governor Tipton’s blog has attracted an impressive 1800 views.  In it, she gathers kindness stories from students around the state.  Her blog also extends her Campaign for Kindness with 10 new suggestions each month, posted on the 13th, which as you now know is Kindness Day.  Here are the 10 suggestions for August 13:

  1. Do a chore for your family without them knowing!
  2. Let someone go ahead of you in line!
  3. Donate food to you local food pantry!
  4. Read a book to your younger siblings!
  5. Make someone else’s bed!
  6. Say “thank you” to service worker!
  7. Volunteer at a soup kitchen!
  8. Bring some play dough to a preschool class!
  9. Make a thank you card for your librarian!
  10. Visit your local retirement home and visit a resident!

Pretty good, eh?  Which will you do?

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While at the library, Elena engaged the children there with an art activity where they expressed their acts of kindness.

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Brian told me that the program helps children know they “have a voice and a responsibility.”

Elena comes from an East Hartford school which uses inquiry-based learning.  She’s a member of the Leadership Team at her school.  Her mother told me her interest as she moves to middle school centers on politics.

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This program fosters civic engagement and empowerment.  I got to watch it work!  Suggest the idea to your state today!

Here’s Elena’s campaign video.

Elena's business card

Elena’s business card

 

They Called Me Lizzy

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The library brought East Haddam Stage Company actor Stephanie Jackson for a one-woman show about Elizabeth Keckley.  Jackson has been performing the role around the US and Canada for about 8 years, but nothing about her today seemed like a performance.  She embodied the soul of this historical figure and mesmerized the packed house.

Keckley was a slave, who through her industriousness, bought her son’s and her freedom.  But not before suffering the violence and indignities we’ve come to associate with woman slaves. The audience was so still during this part of the show, it seemed like we were chained to the actor.  Then through the re-telling of her emancipation, the audience noticeably relaxed, chuckling and talking back to her.

Through Keckley’s smarts and hard work, she networked her way to becoming the dressmaker for Mary Todd Lincoln throughout her White House years. Their growing friendship and Mrs. Lincoln’s emotional reliance on Keckley were challenged after Lincoln’s assassination.

Keckley documented their relationship, which she hoped would be a justification of the First Lady’s behavior, in a book published in 1868.  Instead, the book brought Keckley derision, cost her the friendship of Mrs. Lincoln, and essentially ruined her dressmaking business.

This remarkable life was also documented in a historical novel called Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker, by Jennifer Chiaverini, published last year, which focuses just on the Keckley-First Lady relationship.  The source for this show is Keckley’s work Behind the Scenes, or Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House, her memoir.

In a timely and related note, tomorrow’s New York Times Book Review features a new historical novel that takes place inside Lincoln’s mind, primarily during the Civil War years, called I am Abraham, by Jerome Charyn.

I hope you can catch a performance of “Call Me Lizzy,” but if not, check out one of these intriguing books.