For the last two weeks The Freedom School has been participating in its very own Pinewood Derby. This is the third year that students have made their own cars and then during the second week competed with other students in the school in preliminary and final races.
During the month of March, college students come from all over the country to spend their spring break on a mission trip through InterVarsity Christian Fellowship called City Lights. They come to work with different ministries of my church New City Fellowship, as well as other ministries that are working justice and mercy in the city of St. Louis. Since The Freedom School is one of the ministries we are blessed to have students come and work with us.
I have a special place in my heart for these students as I was one of them spring break 2000. As a result of my time in St. Louis spring break of my freshman year I learned of the injustice of differences in education between schools in St. Louis City and schools in St. Louis County. The statistics and my time tutoring kids inside one of the most failing schools in Missouri broke my heart for the kids. I went back to college and changed my major from Spanish and secondary education to elementary education - knowing that the Lord would be bringing me back to teach in the city ... some city ... at some point in my future. I returned to do City Lights again the summer of 2002.
Because so many City Lights students return to St. Louis in order to live out the justice and mercy they get a taste of during spring break or the summer, we at The Freedom School have decided we want to provide City Lights students with a project that they are involved with each year they come. We've had students request to come back and work with our kids each year they return. This year we had a whole new crop of folks helping us to cut, sand, and paint our cars. Our race is tomorrow and all I've heard about all week from my kids is "When do we get to do Pinewood Derby?" I've created a forces and motion unit to go along with our time and I'll be posting more on that unit when I find the time.
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