Friday, Aug. 15, 2008
Children taught about democracy in Los Banos
Lesson on ancient Greek politics brings students to City Hall
By Minerva Perez / mperez@losbanosenterprise.com
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ReprintA group of sixth-graders learned Wednesday that despite being thousands miles away and thousands of years ahead, Los Baños is very much like ancient Athens.
"There are so many ways that (modern) cities mirror that ancient Greek city," Economic and Redevelopment Manager Elaine Post told a pack of of toga-attired students.
Dressed in their best bedsheets and sporting wreaths on top of their heads, children in Jack Lalley's class at R.M. Miano Elementary School took a field trip to City Hall where municipal leaders spoke about today's government and how it is similar and different to ancient Athens, Greece; the birthplace of democracy.
Post led the presentation by providing an overview of Greece's system of governance, a direct democracy, and that of Los Baños, a representative democracy, and then invited Mayor Tommy Jones and Councilman Joe Sousa to talk about elections and how they represent the people's will.
"I always like to tell people you can't complain if you don't vote or if you don't do anything to help build your community," Jones said.
He and Sousa explained to students that they were elected into office by the majority of voters to make decisions on their behalf, a slight difference from Athens where everyone voted on decisions, but only men 18 years of age or older were allowed to vote.
"When you don't like what (elected) people think, your parents replace them with others," he said.
In ancient Athens, a small group of people in charge made the decisions and appointed others to carry them out much like today. The students learned that on top of that chain of command is the city manager who has help from various department heads like the fire and police chiefs, city planners and public works employees.
In ancient Greece, City Manager Steve Rath would have the role of a governor in that it is his duty to execute the orders of the decision makers, in Rath's case the council.
As an example, he brought up five students to act as the council and come up with a decision that he would have to execute. When the children voted to have more after-school activities, Rath explained to them the process he would take and the various departments he would have to contact to make it possible.
Each segment ended with a question and answer session. Students asked city leaders questions regarding voting age, financing a skate park and fixing city streets.
Lalley brought the students to City Hall as part of their studies on ancient Greece.
Students said they have studied mythology since July but were about to move on to Greek society and government. The field trip was a way to understand how ancient Greece's contributions affect them in modern times.
"I'm interested in finding out more information about them (the ancient Greeks)," Hannah Rodriguez, 11, said.
Her classmate Ricardo Lopez, 11, said his favorite part of the presentation was Los Baños Police Department Sgt. Carey Reed's segment on the ways the police enforce the laws.
"That was pretty cool," he said.
Assistant Planner Stacy Souza spoke about the importance of having a vision for the city and a public works civil engineer explained about the quality of life issues he and public works employees deal with everyday.
Post wrapped up the civics lesson by talking about her department and how progressive Los Baños is compared to other Central Valley communities.
In many ways, she said, Los Baños is very similar to Athens.
"We are right in the heart of California," she said. "Much like Athens was the center of everything."
Enterprise reporter Minerva Perez can be reached by phone at (209)388-6565 or by e-mail at mperez@losbanosenterprise.com