An Essay in Photos
Kansas City area children were able to picture themselves as astronauts, aeronautical engineers, and architects during the fourth annual
Kauffman-sponsored, Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom Schools™ Discovery Day
on July 7, 2008. More than 1,850 children and nearly 200 interns explored twenty
stations, staffed by volunteers from local organizations, that exposed them to
the fields of technology and engineering. From robots, space shuttles, and paper
airplanes, to architecture, weather, and electricity, the Freedom School
"scholars" experienced these industries with a variety of hands-on
activities.
The CDF's Freedom Schools program is an inventive, creative approach to
summer education enrichment designed to serve children, ages five to fifteen, in
urban communities. Revitalized under the leadership of Marian Wright Edelman,
founder of the Children's Defense Fund, the program uses teaching techniques
developed to nurture both the mind and the spirit. The curriculum is
activity-based, emphasizing reading, writing, multigenerational mentoring,
leadership, conflict resolution, and promoting social, cultural, and historical
awareness.
CDF Freedom Schools represent one of the innovative programs the Kauffman
Foundation has committed to revitalize and bring to scale. With Kauffman
support, Kansas City’s first CDF Freedom Schools program opened in 1995. The
Kansas City movement has since grown with a multi-million dollar Kauffman grant
to serve two thousand children at nineteen sites, and is recognized by the
Children’s Defense Fund as the most successful Freedom Schools initiative in the
nation.
View the Discovery Day Photos (PDF)
