Session: Training 21st Century Planners

March 31, 1:00 PM

Ramona K. Mullahey

In 1782, Tomas Jefferson, considered the father of free public education, stated that democracy could not survive without, “those talents which nature has sown as liberally among the poor as well as the rich, but which perish without use, if not sought for and cultivated. Every government degenerates where trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves therefore are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved.”

What is required to maintain a democracy? According to educator Dr. George Wood in his visionary book, Schools That Work, we need:

• informed citizens who actively participate in public decision-making
• citizens with an ongoing sense of community and an obligation to the common good
• citizens able to use the tools of literacy - reading, writing, computing -to evaluate, sort and analyze information to find the truths from the propaganda that surround and immerse them daily
• citizens with the courage to participate to make the choices essential to promoting the common good

How do we ensure that all citizens develop the common sense, or rather, as George Wood so aptly puts it , “the sense to live in common”? One way is to make sure that every child is connected with the world-at-large, has genuine purpose, and that students see how to make a difference in their neighborhoods and cities. And, by seizing the rich opportunities for civic learning discovered when using one’s community as a learning laboratory, young people learn to address some of life’s daunting social problems and acquire the skills as 21st Century Planners.

For the past thirteen years, the American Planning Association has featured exemplary community programs that offer the planning professional as well as advocate, tools for involving kids in planning. Besides APA’s web site which provides the Kids & Community link and Resources ‘Zine (under Publications) – a composite of 15 years of successful programs and tools – and Planners Bookstore publications, the annual national conference examines new cutting-edge learning models that planners can adapt in their own communities.

Today, we will present Citizen Schools, a hands-on experiential learning by doing, after school program that helps build students skills in addressing community needs. Due to its success, Citizen Schools has launched a major national expansion across the country to nurture more content driven out-of-school programs that also prepare young people to assume leadership roles in the 21st century. The unique apprenticeship approach empowers citizen teachers who use their lives as distinctive textbooks for teaching: ordinary citizens become community mentors as children apprentice with planners, architects, and much more. The ease and excitement of learning powerfully links young people to their community and helps create a basis of a more informed citizenry.

Author and Copyright Information

Ramona K. Mullahey is an author of Youth Participation in Community Planning, and has developed curriculum that use the community as a textbook. She can be contacted at mullahey2@att.net or (808) 533-0777.