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More Community Corner Student essay inspires youth role at Hingham Town Meeting
Open democracy begins in the sixth grade in Hingham. For the first time, a sixth grader, representing the town’s young residents, voiced her opinion at Hingham’s town meeting on April 28.
The town was following up on an idea proposed in an award-winning essay written by Hingham resident Kate Criscitiello. The essay, which took second place in the MMA’s statewide Sixth Grade Essay Contest in January, argued that community leaders should let young people be heard at town meeting.
“The Declaration of Independence states that all citizens of America are created equal,” wrote Criscitiello. “Age is but a number, so kids aren’t that different from adults.” Her essay went on to say that listening to kids at town meeting would help in making good decisions.
Inspired by the essay, the chair of the Board of Selectmen, Laura Burns, approached other town and school officials about implementing the idea.
“I remember feeling exactly the way Kate said she felt in her essay when I was her age,” Burns said. “And today I am the chair of the Board of Selectmen.
“Kids like Kate who step up to the plate and say I want to be heard, I want to participate, you need to pull them in because that is where your next generation of leaders are coming from.”
Burns mustered support from other selectmen, Town Moderator Tom O’Donnell, and the Hingham Advisory Board. Burns also coordinated with Hingham Middle School teachers June Gustafson and Lauren Ciocca.
“Town meeting is a special and fragile institution and I think extraordinary measures are going to be required to hook the new generation into it,” said Burns, who earlier in the year worked with Ciocca on seven mock town meetings involving Hingham seventh graders.
Students met after school for several weeks to work on the town meeting project. The students reviewed the warrant, discussed various articles, wrote talking points, investigated both sides of certain issues, and practiced their public speaking.
“The project included preparing and writing a speech and working together with my classmates,” said essay winner Criscitiello, who added, “We all had a lot of fun together.”
Gustafson said sixth graders in Hingham are currently learning about Greece and Rome and their types of democracy. The town meeting project, she said, provided a real-life example for students.
At the town meeting, Burns asked Hingham town meeting members to grant the sixth-grade student representative, Jenna Napolitano, permission to speak as a guest of town meeting.
Despite the fact that Napolitano was not of voting age, the town meeting voted to allow her to speak on behalf of the students from Hingham Middle School. Before a crowd of 364 citizens, Napolitano urged support for a proposed dog leash bylaw change.
In an interview later, Napolitano said that in school you learn about issues, but “at town meeting, you can actually state your opinion on how it affects you and maybe make a change.”
Essay writer Criscitiello was encouraged.
“I definitely think we made a difference,” she said.
Gustafson suggested that several of the students involved “will not only be town meeting members, but quite possibly could become elected officials – selectmen, congressmen, senators or even president.”
More Community Corner Student essay inspires youth role at Hingham Town Meeting
Student essay inspires youth role at Hingham Town Meeting
Open democracy begins in the sixth grade in Hingham. For the first time, a sixth grader, representing the town’s young residents, voiced her opinion at Hingham’s town meeting on April 28.
The town was following up on an idea proposed in an award-winning essay written by Hingham resident Kate Criscitiello. The essay, which took second place in the MMA’s statewide Sixth Grade Essay Contest in January, argued that community leaders should let young people be heard at town meeting.
“The Declaration of Independence states that all citizens of America are created equal,” wrote Criscitiello. “Age is but a number, so kids aren’t that different from adults.” Her essay went on to say that listening to kids at town meeting would help in making good decisions.
Inspired by the essay, the chair of the Board of Selectmen, Laura Burns, approached other town and school officials about implementing the idea.
“I remember feeling exactly the way Kate said she felt in her essay when I was her age,” Burns said. “And today I am the chair of the Board of Selectmen.
“Kids like Kate who step up to the plate and say I want to be heard, I want to participate, you need to pull them in because that is where your next generation of leaders are coming from.”
Burns mustered support from other selectmen, Town Moderator Tom O’Donnell, and the Hingham Advisory Board. Burns also coordinated with Hingham Middle School teachers June Gustafson and Lauren Ciocca.
“Town meeting is a special and fragile institution and I think extraordinary measures are going to be required to hook the new generation into it,” said Burns, who earlier in the year worked with Ciocca on seven mock town meetings involving Hingham seventh graders.
Students met after school for several weeks to work on the town meeting project. The students reviewed the warrant, discussed various articles, wrote talking points, investigated both sides of certain issues, and practiced their public speaking.
“The project included preparing and writing a speech and working together with my classmates,” said essay winner Criscitiello, who added, “We all had a lot of fun together.”
Gustafson said sixth graders in Hingham are currently learning about Greece and Rome and their types of democracy. The town meeting project, she said, provided a real-life example for students.
At the town meeting, Burns asked Hingham town meeting members to grant the sixth-grade student representative, Jenna Napolitano, permission to speak as a guest of town meeting.
Despite the fact that Napolitano was not of voting age, the town meeting voted to allow her to speak on behalf of the students from Hingham Middle School. Before a crowd of 364 citizens, Napolitano urged support for a proposed dog leash bylaw change.
In an interview later, Napolitano said that in school you learn about issues, but “at town meeting, you can actually state your opinion on how it affects you and maybe make a change.”
Essay writer Criscitiello was encouraged.
“I definitely think we made a difference,” she said.
Gustafson suggested that several of the students involved “will not only be town meeting members, but quite possibly could become elected officials – selectmen, congressmen, senators or even president.”
Written by MMA Member Services Coordinator Ellen Stoolmacher
