Youth Giving Soap Box Speeches in Downtown Chicago

I gotta share this! Today young people with one of the Mikva Challenge youth councils gathered at the “Bean” sculpture in Chicago’s Millenium Park to give soap box speeches on issues about which they are passionately concerned. What a great way for students to bring their voices out to the public.

View pictures and one of the speeches at the Twitter hashtag #popupsoapbox . (Several of the pics are from previous years.)

Reminds me: Soap box speeches were a real feature of American public life in the past. I recall as a college student going one evening to Chicago’s Bughouse Square (as it was called — the formal names of the spot is Washington Square Park) to listen to some of the speeches. Chicago’s Newberry Library holds what they call Bughouse Square debates once per year — a rather tame version compared to the past, or to the energy of these students now.

PS: More pics plus a video in the news.

Civic Action in Schools

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By Steve Zemelman, Director, IL Writing Project; author, “From Inquiry to Action;” co-author, “Subjects Matter” & “Best Practice;” Restorative Justice advisor

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