On February 28th Chicago residents (or a very small percent of them) will elect a new Mayor, or re-elect the current one. Here's one website with a list of candidates.
The only candidate I have had much interaction with is Paul Vallas, who was very supportive of the Tutor/Mentor Connection in the mid 1990s when he was CEO of Chicago Public Schools. He spoke at two of our conferences and one, or two, of our Aug/Sept Citywide Tutor/Mentor Volunteer-Recruitment Campaigns.So you'd think I would be endorsing him. I'm not. He's had 20 years to follow what I write on this blog and incorporate the ideas into his own leadership and I've not seen evidence of that
I've participated in the current Mayor's MyChiMyFuture meetings and shared ideas. I like the map they have created. They could be doing more. No one has asked to learn more from me.
They would emphasize a long-term birth-to-work strategy that has roots in every high poverty neighborhood.
Every day they would be challenging the residents of the city and suburbs, asking "How can we do this better?"
It's not enough that they might put these ideas on their campaign website. They should have a personal and/or organizational blog that shows they have been sharing this commitment and performing these actions for many years.
(While my focus has been on the city of Chicago and I lived in Rogers Park for 17 years, and led a tutor/mentor program serving kids in Cabrini-Green for 35 years, I currently live in Arlington Heights, so cannot vote in the Chicago election.)
One of my first recommendations would be to set up a student-learning program in high schools and colleges, where students spend time reading articles then sharing them using various media tools. View this blog to see how interns did this between 2006 and 2015.
Thanks for reading. If you're helping someone run for office, share this with them. Maybe they will adopt the ideas, even if they don't win in 2023.
I'm on Twitter (still) and other social media platforms (click here for list). Let's connect.
If you want to help me keep sharing these ideas and hosting my library please visit my Fund T/MI page and send a contribution.
No comments:
Post a Comment