Change agents: Kids learn they don't have to passively accept conditions in a community Change agents: Kids learn they don't have to passively accept conditions in a community (December 15, 2004)

By David Boyce

Almanac Staff Writer

Lawyers and advertising executives have no corner on the quest to be persuasive. Children have an abiding interest as well, most easily seen perhaps in schemes to stay up past bedtime or get the latest cool toy. And as they realize soon enough, there is always more to learn.

A group of second- and third-graders at Las Lomitas School in Atherton may have a better grasp of the topic after having had an extended look at a real-life civics lesson: a detailed, personal and illustrated account of the multi-year battle to narrow the Alameda de las Pulgas as it passes through the small business district in West Menlo Park in order to add trees, sidewalks and bike lanes.

Speaking to the kids in a series of talks in Patrick Hayes' classroom was Leslie Wambach, the mother of Las Lomitas third-grader Zoe Pacalin and the architect of what came to be known as the Alameda streetscape project.

The Board of Supervisors approved the streetscape plan in 2001 and it recently reached a conclusion with the planting 43 London plane trees in November, with students from Mr. Hayes' class shoveling dirt over the roots of the last tree to be planted.
Words to paper

To help bring home the lesson of community activism, Mr. Hayes had each student choose an issue and write a persuasive letter to someone in authority.

In her November 4 letter to San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon, Sophia Gustafson -- Sophie to her friends -- called on her own memories in asking Mr. Gordon to consider rebuilding the Double Rainbow ice cream shop replaced by a Starbuck's Coffee Shop in unincorporated West Menlo Park.

"When I was little, my dad and I would go there after we ate dinner at the Dutch Goose," Sophia said. "I always got the same flavored ice cream and all the different games were so much fun to play. ... Please tear down the Starbucks and build the ice cream shop."

Jessica Heilman wrote to her mom in a November 8 letter, stating that the backyard garden could be "made to look better," but that she needed help because she lacked the financial wherewithal to do it herself.

The garden, Jessica said, could have "a bridge going over a creek that turns into a little waterfall that goes into a little pond with 10 (Koi) fish in it and a giant tortoise that would live next to the pond."

"We had an indoor recess lately and there should be more rainy day games," said Amanda Wiseman in a November 18 letter to Mr. Hayes. "Can you buy more of them? If you can, buy them quickly. Thank you."

The letter-writing exercise is "mainly a way to have (the students) see communication as a tool for accomplishing a goal rather than just an academic activity," said Mr. Hayes. "It's hard to get them to have a sense of audience."

Writing is one way to express a complicated idea, a way to encode it so it can be recalled in detail, he added.
Orienting for kids

In talking to students about the streetscape project, Ms. Wambach said she used props and a story-telling method to explain how it all unfolded: the long process of building community support, coping with adversaries, and persevering to the end.

To explain zoning and the impact of the original block-long building proposed for the corner of Ashton Avenue and the Alameda, she said she employed plastic blocks scaled to the correct size and placed on an aerial photograph of the Alameda (provided by an Atherton volunteer who owns an airplane).

The use of the blocks "was a very tangible, visible example," Ms. Wambach said, adding that she wished she had used that same approach when introducing her concerns to the supervisors. "It's so much more effective and powerful."

On December 2, Supervisor Gordon visited the classroom, spoke and took students' questions for 45 minutes.

"Part of what government does is try to find answers that work for most people," said Mr. Gordon. "I wasn't paying any attention to the Alameda until a group of citizens said, 'Mr. Supervisor, we think this could be something different (for the street).' If you see something that could be better, bring it to (someone's) attention."

One student asked him if he had any friends on the Board of Supervisors. "On the streetscape, Supervisor Jerry Hill was my best friend," Mr. Gordon replied. "We all get along. We like each other and we laugh a lot."

Bill Kirsch -- a member of the streetscape task force -- also spoke and noted the lessons he took away from the project: Change is possible if you get involved; work with local government because the power to make change resides there; include people with whom you disagree; and see it through to the end.

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