More than 450 kids who attend the St. Vincent de Paul Day Care Center in Chicago recently took a field trip to the zoo, but there was nary an animal in sight.
It was a reading zoo, held in the center’s gymnasium, where blankets scattered all over the floor served as stations for animal-related activities, including storytelling, animal games, face painting and crafts.
The zoo was part of a two-year project called Kids 4 Kids begun last September and designed by 7th and 8th graders in Highland Park’s Elm Place School’s Community Problem Solvers class. Susan Greenwald, an 18-year English teacher at Elm Place, introduced the class in 1992; she had begun offering its predecessor, the Future Problem Solvers class, in 1982.
“When I started teaching at Elm Place, I was getting to know parents, and one of them brought Problem Solvers to my attention,” explained Greenwald. “I began offering it that year and every year since then. When they started the [Community Problem Solvers] class in 1992, I immediately began to offer it to students.”
Although their criteria for participation differ, both the Future and Community Problem Solvers take kids through a six-step problem-solving process, a journey from identifying the challengeto crafting a solution and writing an essay about it.Paul Torrence, a professor at the University of Georgia, created the Future Problem Solvers program in 1974 for children with high academic abilities. It’s now open to students of all ability levels and is found in 44 states, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Headquartered in Batavia, the Illinois version of the program currently includes 15,000 children in 180 school districts across the state using Future Problems Solvers; 15 districts use Community Problem Solvers. Among the other area schools using the program are Hinsdale Central High School, Westview Elementary School in Clarendon Hills, Kennedy Junior High School in Lisle, Batavia High School; Blackhawk Elementary School in Glendale Heights, Richmond Elementary School in Richmond, Oak Grove Elementary in Green Oaks, Chute Middle School in Evanston, West Oak Elementary School in Mundelein and St. Charles High School in St. Charles.
“The main difference between the programs is the source of the problem. In [Future Problem Solvers], the problem is given to the children to solve,” explained Trevor Steinbach, dean of humanities at Morton West High School in Berwyn, who brought the program to Illinois in 1980. “In [Community Problem Solvers], the children solve a problem they find in the real world.”
Greenwald’s class found their challenge while volunteering at St. Vincent’s. Greenwald had started a summer program at the center several years ago to honor her late mother and her love of children.
“On one of these visits the children [from Highland Park] noticed that the few books the center had for browsing were tattered and torn,” she said. “Their own childhood favorites were missing from the shelves. However, it was the lack of interest the center’s children had in the books that concerned my class the most.”
“I remember when I was in preschool. The shiny new books were so neat to me,” said David Conway, 14, of Highland Park. “These kids didn’t have any. How can they learn to read if they aren’t interested in books? We wanted to help.”
This unanimous feeling led to the development of an extensive master plan to solve that problem. Solutions included a celebrity trash auction fundraiser, reading activities, a used-book drive and the start of a home lending program at the center.
Sister Angele Hinkey, director of St. Vincent’s, said the project proposal came as a wonderful surprise to the center.
“We are the largest day-care center in Illinois, with more than 450 children. Most of our families are single working parents and many are low-income. So when Mrs. Greenwald’s class came to the center and told us that they wanted to buy some books and promote reading, we were overjoyed. They came to us with arms outstretched and said, `How can we serve you?”‘ said Hinkey. “The greatest thing is that these kids are doing more than they realize. They are enhancing the relationships between these children and their parents. For some of the children, this will be the first time this has ever happened. These kids have a wonderful spirit and our kids sense their enthusiasm and respond gloriously to it.”
Greenwald’s class wrote letters to celebrities soliciting “trash” to be auctioned off, hoping to raise enough to purchase books and shelves and to fund special projects.
“We spent weeks writing letters to hundreds of celebrities. We received autographed pictures. Barbara Bush sent us an autographed dictionary from the White House,” said Conway. “Bob Hope sent us an autographed tie and Walter Payton sent us an autographed poster with a letter of authenticity.”
The Payton item put the project in perspective for the youngsters.
“I was sitting at the auction with a group of my friends who are also in the class. We were hoping to earn about $3,000,” said Conway. “When the Payton poster came up, the announcement was made that it went for over $3,000. My friends and I just knew right then that we were really going to help the center. We were no longer thinking, `Oh good, we can buy them a few good books,’ we were thinking, `We can get them a whole new library! It was so cool. We made over $11,000.”
Zach Fuchs, 13, said the project means more to him than just the material help they provided.
“When I think that I am helping with illiteracy, it makes me feel so good,” said Fuchs. “As we work on the project, I learned that we were also helping to create a bond for these kids with their parents. I never realized that we were promoting that.”
To house the new books, the Problem Solvers purchased, built and painted bookshelves for the center. Then they added a more personal touch.
“This project is such a self-esteem booster,” Greenwald explained. “We took pictures of all of the kids [at the center]. Then we purchased these plain white books and drilled a hole through them about the size of a silver dollar. Then we put the picture on the back of the book and when the children open the book, they see their face on each page.”
Their efforts recently were recognized when they won the state competition in the civic category, which they celebrated with a visit to St. Vincent’s and a dinner.
“Around the country children are putting together some fantastic projects,” Steinbach said. “In Massachusetts, a group came up with a new way to process sludge. A class in Texas raised funds to save the battleship Texas. Another class in Salt Lake City created a super-fund to clean up a toxic waste dump that was leaking onto a playground. Like these projects, the Elm Place project is great because it was designed and put together by children who are finding great success in their attempts at solving a community problem.”
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For more information about the Problem Solvers programs, call 800-544-3772.
