Vote for the World You Want
Sharing Social Responsibility In Play
A core part of School of Wonder programming includes full-day camp experiences called Adventures with Gaia, the goddess of Mother Nature. As part of our mission statement, School of Wonder exists to preserve children’s natural wonder while preparing them to steward a fast-changing world. The following post captures the stewardship that blossomed from a full-day camp this past Election Day.
If you were to walk by Litchfield Villa on this Election Day morning around 9am, you would see the following scene: several Wonder Kids lined up along the three-foot high brick divider between the park and street, waiting for Wonder Magician, Christine, to count down from five to “ONE,” for the kids to then jump altogether into a pile of leaves; you would see a museum of Wonder Kids as animal statutes frozen in laughter, watching a Wonder Magician play the role of museum security guard, who, sun-screen bottle as flashlight in hand, lurks through the make-shift museum ready to turn the flashlight on the bear or lion that makes any sudden movement; you would see three Wonder Kids hanging from a tree, not far from where Gaia’s mailbox also hangs from a nearby branch. The sun is shining, and there are more Wonder Kids than ever before — 22 for the 2022 Election Day!
Right from the start, even with such a large group, the new Wonder Kids seem totally immersed in the group dynamic. The day begins with everyone sharing names, and some include a movement or sound as they sing their name. A few restless kids stay in the tree, but once a friendly guitar player enters the group to deliver a message from Gaia, even the tree climbers come together to see what the mission is. A new Wonder Kid reads aloud that today’s mission is about democracy. “Fair democracy is having an election so the Democrats can win,” another Wonder Kid says when asked what is democracy. You can only wonder who her parents may be voting for.
As the group makes its way to the picnic house, Gaia’s voice is heard from inside a bush. Once the group gets close enough (and quiet enough), they hear from Gaia that they will be splitting into teams for the activity. In order to learn about democracy, the Wonder Kids are personifying democracy by putting group work into practice. Since the start of the day, two Wonder Kids introduce an important question for the Wonder Leaders in determining how to split up the groups: do two kids who are already causing mischief together get to be in the same group? The leaders decide yes, and one of them takes the two boys under her wing as the leader of the Clover team. The other four teams — Sun, Heart, Star, and Spiral — separate with their respective team leaders and a bag of supplies for creating their manifestos of democracy, the prompt being:
“WHAT WOULD THE WORLD YOU WANT TO LIVE IN LOOK LIKE.”
The Sun team — democratically renamed, Earth Helper Heroes — is initially divided on what name to go with. Some want Earth Heroes, others want Earth Helpers. One Wonder Kids suggests the group combine the names as a third option, and then when the group takes a vote, the combined named wins. Throughout the day, when the group forgets a more precise definition of the word democracy, they reference this moment as an example of democracy. Group collaboration and voting helped them arrive at a name that most everyone supported! After choosing their name, the Earth Helper Heroes then reflect on the ways they want the world to look like. Cars without gas. Cars without diesel. Candy! Balloons that don’t hurt the animals in the ocean when they pop and fall from space. Before they create the final manifesto, though, the group mobilizes and marches through the park, asking their fellow citizens the same question.
The Earth Helper Heroes end up talking to about a dozen people, asking them what the world they want to live in looks like, what their values are, and what is democracy to them. They meet dog owners who want the world to treat animals better; parents who want climate change to be reversed so their kids can live longer lives; immigrants who believe in the hope of democracy but feel like their values aren’t represented in modern society. The Earth Helper Heroes are passionate about finding interviewees and asking the hard hitting questions. With each interview the manifesto comes together — they are ready to show the world what they’ve learned!
Meanwhile, the other four groups are in the park building their respective manifestos. Another Wonder Leader reports back that their group has some revelatory encounters with both Chinese and Russian park goers. The Chinese folks say they don’t feel like their country represents democracy due to their censorship and lack of fair elections; and the Russian man explains how even though they have elections, there is only one candidate to vote for. One Wonder Kid in particular feels the weight of this injustice, asking follow-up after follow-up questions to learn more. This becomes critical material for the creation of the Clover group’s manifesto.
As the group reunites to enjoy a relaxing lunch in the sun, new teams start to form to begin the set up process for the construction of the Prospect Park General Election Day polling station. There are four groups this time that divide up the tasks: preparing the ballot box, setting up the secrecy voting booth, making “I Voted” leaf stickers with gold Sharpie, and completing the sign making. Within what feels like only a few brief minutes, the Wonder Kids have transformed the field into a government-approved polling station (minus a few boys hanging in the trees of the private booth, whispering opinions in their attempt to sway voters). One o’clock is upon us, and the poll is official open to the voters of Prospect Park!
A few Wonder Kids scurry across the park — printed-off ballot forms in hand — asking voters to come by the poll to vote for their most aligned manifesto. There is an hour before the poll closes and already voters are coming through to have their voice heard. Real electoral democracy happening before everyone’s eyes! At any point during the hour, you can see nearly a dozen voters reading through the manifestos, carefully determining the values and qualities of each imaginative world. “Women’s rights, slay,” one voter says about the Clover team’s manifesto. A couple notices the magic of what’s happening:
“HOW CAN WE GET OUR KIDS TO BE IN WONDER CAMP,” THE DAD ASKS.
It’s nearly two o’clock, ballots are running low, and the poll is officially closing. The Wonder Leaders come together to discuss how to best count the votes. A Wonder Kid, in his cowboy hat and matching beige blazer, is wanting to be the official counter. The Wonder Leaders decide two leaders will call the votes out and tally. They also decide attending is optional, but only a few votes in, almost all of the Wonder Kids are crowded around leaders, Marta and Stacey, responding with cheers as each ballot is (fairly!) counted. And at the end of nearly 100 ballots counted, the results are in: by one vote, Clover wins!
Timed quite well, a park DJ with a speaker and microphone rolls up and offers his equipment — the Election Day Party can now begin. While most Wonder Kids are celebrating, one Wonder Kid is off to the side on a bench crying, as his Heart team manifesto came up shy from winning by one vote. You can hear one of his fellow Wonder friends reassuring him of all the ways he saw his friend help create a successful manifesto, even though they didn’t win. In a democracy, even when our political ideology doesn’t receive the most votes, the act of building community, spreading hope, and creating personal values is a process that can’t be reversed by the outcome of a single election. The two boys figure out how to move forward from this loss, a moment of inspiration the Wonder Leaders cherish together.
In between the celebratory dancing, a Wonder Leader takes the microphone to congratulate the Clover party on their victory, reminding the group how everyone’s participation in democracy today is the real victory. She passes the microphone around through the Wonder Kids, who take turns sharing what this day meant to them. One reports out that when she asked a little girl what she wanted to happen in the world, the little girl hugged her mom and she said “love.” Another reminds the group how life would be pointless if you don’t express how you feel. And another, with an “I Voted” sticker stuck to the front of his beanie, is passed the microphone and says nothing with a big smile. The park DJ plays the “Clean Up” song, as everyone quickly disassembles the Election Day set-up. As the Wonder Kids crunch through the leaves back to Litchfield Villa, a family walks by, bright sunlight shining on the leaves tapped to their shirts. On the leaves in gold Sharpie reads: “I voted.”
