04/29/2026
How can kids experience what social democracy means? During our spring break adventure, the Wonder Kids visited Councilmember Shahanah (District 39) at City Hall to present their ideas on how to create a city where all citizens can be at ease.
At the beginning of the week, the Wonder Kids embarked on a quest to discover the Lost Preamble — a giant scroll written 250 years ago to find peace after a long period of fighting. Letters of Abraham Lincoln, Marquis de Lafayette, and George Washington guided the way as they found this document (translated into kid language) torn into pieces! And so the quest to restore peace began.
The ideas of the Preamble guided their way throughout the week as they created a simulated society - Crocodile Town - paying taxes, deciding how to allocate public funds during Town Halls, and making agreements together. Learning through play, they suggested establishing a due process, a proportional tax system, a public school, and community-based housing. Their ideas were inspired by experiencing these real scenarios through an imaginative lens (…that is, after seeing greedy store owners, military bases and private jails shaking the peace of Crocodile town!) :D
Based on their experience and ideas for how to make the city better, they wrote proposals in 3 committees - the Green City Committee, the Committee for Citizens in Need, and the Kids and Families Committee. They took to the subway, rehearsed, and presented these ideas clearly to Councilmember Hanif on Friday, walking past a statue of George Washington on the way.
This was a powerful example of the impact of adventure-based learning, the method we are developing here at School of Wonder combining experiential learning with imaginative play.
adventurebasedlearning imaginativeinquiry
