Let's put our minds together and see what we can come up with to help children learn and practice thinking critically about how they can thrive and flourish within their local community

by Jon Dunnemann

How can we embark on making the best possible use of our collective education, life experience, job skills, past history, financial resources and relationships, and imaginations as adults with the goal of more fully empowering disadvantaged, single-parented children and youth to become engaged, intentional, and values-driven in their efforts to overcome the day-to-day challenges that they are likely to face and must be well equipped to respond to despite often having limited encouragement, opportunity, time, resources, and outside support? 

Can we possibly figure out a way to monopolize the challenges of disadvantage, disinvestment, dropping out of school, inequality, life hardship, neglect of public services, (such as schools, building, street, and park maintenance; garbage collection; and transportation), discriminatory housing and loan policies, the disappearance  of factory jobs and massive unemployment, and stress and trauma (stemming from bullying, gang violence, police profiling, and mass incarceration of family members) in an effort to teach children and youth how to creatively game their way to alternative life choices, opportunity, sound judgement, and regular practices that will safely point them towards flourishing, good health, pathways for long-term success, and personal safety and well-being? 

Is it viable to build a board game, a reclaimed space, a springboard or test lab for the ultimate conquest of anxiety, cluelessness, depression, fear, hopelessness, poverty, rejection, suffering, suicidal thoughts, tragedy, and the predictable neighborhood acts of exploitation, violence and abuse?

It certainly would do some good for a us to try. What do you think? I happen to believe that try we must.

We use critical thinking skills every day. They help us to make good decisions, understand the consequences of our actions and solve problems. These incredibly important skills are used in everything from putting together puzzles to mapping out the best route to work. It’s the process of using focus and self-control to solve problems and set and follow through on goals. It utilizes other important life skills like making connections, perspective taking and communicating. Basically, critical thinking helps us make good, sound decisions.

- Kylie Rymanowicz

Whether we decide to focus on urban, rural or suburban landscapes they all consist of the following three things:

• streets
• spaces
• facilities

It is probably fair to say that adults, youth, and children alike all desire and deserve to enjoy physical safety, environmentally clean air and water, free of harmful toxins, green spaces, attractive public and quality sacred spaces, and easily traversed walkways and streets in their neighborhoods.

The lived in spaces that we commonly occupy are often shared with others but they can also afford us rare and enjoyable moments of solitude if they are thoughtfully designed to include greenery, nearby parks and waterways, indoor and outdoor markets, and rich and diverse cultural/performing arts and small and large recreational centers of activity that are within walking distance or a short bike ride away just to name a few of the many possible amenities that people are able to enjoy in a more complete and well integrated neighborhood.

Facilities on the other hand encompass the varied educational, historical, political, religious/spiritual, socioeconomic (commercial and residential) and environmental structures. To children and youth these built structures can either be quite imposing or warmly inviting. 

Here are a number questions that I recently thought of asking children and youth in an effort to learn more about how they presently view day-to day life within their local community:

1. What do you want in your community that does not exist there today (i.e., skate parks, bike paths, indoor malls, outdoor markets and street festivals, etc.)?
2. What do you think should be done with the abandoned buildings and vacant lots in your community (i.e., cafes and shops, a community center, cooperative apartment buildings, medical, dental, mental health, and drug and alcohol addiction counseling, and job readiness training facilities and vocational and trade school programming, etc.)?
3. What would a space that caters to children and youth look like and what activities should it include (i.e., a Cinema School to facilitate student storytelling, a state-of-the-art recording studio, playhouse and dance academy, a place for artists and musicians to mentor children and youth, etc.)?
4. What do you think should be done to rebuild or restore your community block by block (i.e., microloans, commercial and residential building 'repurposing with a purpose', economic enterprise zones, etc.?
5. What if any changes do you think would make you feel really good about your community (i.e., to have the option of attending African-centered Private Elementary and Middle Schools, to have a voice and to be deeply listened to, to have our greatest concerns, issues, and threats taken seriously, mitigated, and substantively acted upon, etc.)?
6. Have you every visited another community that you thought had more of the things that you would like to see made available in your community (i.e, access to computers and the internet, after-school programming, free public transportation, youth church and athletic sports league, etc.)?
7. What does the word community mean to you (i.e., a place where people of all ages, different cultures, faith traditions, income levels, and races join together to co-create a safe, nurturing and environmentally-friendly space where they can to be of service to one another and experience economic-prosperity, joy, love, peace, and relationship, etc.)?
8. What is the one thing in your community that you feel most threatens your safety and general well-being (i.e., abandonment, becoming incarcerated, being looked down upon by others, gang violence, getting beat up, homelessness, indifference, isolation and cramped conditions, lack of food, clothing or other necessities, neglect, not having enough money, physical, sexual or substance abuse, a sense of limited hope for the future, treating children as problems, not solutions, unfairness, unsafe and unsanitary living conditions, etc.)?

If you've got kids of your very own or are involved in working with them in one way or another can you please make the time to ask them some if not all of these questions and then kindly let me know what you come to discover?

It's my strongly held belief that if we can collectively commit to use whatever we learn to do everything in our power and imagination to see to it that those among us who are less fortunate for a variety of reasons, most especially the children, are listened to and given a chance to plan and design welcoming spaces in their community then they will not be left to experience so much dis-ease or to needlessly suffer in vain. Rather, they will be well on their way to thriving and flourishing in a community where dignity, fulfillment, hope, inclusion, love, joy, and engagement is blossoming in abundance.

Thank you and many blessings.

JD