Trust it has been cold enough for everyone! The cold and snow again had us cancel a League Event, our January 28th meeting on Climate Changes. Kind of ironic to cancel a meeting on climate because of climate! That meeting we hope to have later in the year.
On Monday, February 10, League will work with the Hewlett Woodmere PTA and present a meeting on the Common Core Curriculum now being required in our schools; the meeting will be held at Lawrence Woodmere Academy at 7pm.
There will be four speakers from diverse backgrounds who will talk about what is the common core, how did it come about, how is it being implemented, and what problems or issues, if any, are there. This will be a very exciting program with many from our community coming together to learn about this most important topic affecting our schools and the education of our children.
The Nassau County ILO will be having its upcoming Women’s History Brunch on Sunday, March 23rd. Our keynote speaker will be the newly elected Town Supervisor in North Hempstead, Judi Bosworth. In addition, there will be two League members speaking on books they have been published recently: Long Island and the Woman Suffrage Movement by Antonia Petrash (Port Washington/Manhasset) and Searching for Matilda, Portrait of a Forgotten Feminist by Charlotte M. Shapiro (East Nassau). Invitations to follow.
Coming up also in March through May will be our student voter registration events in Lawrence, Woodmere, and Elmont. The grant we received from National will assist us in this endeavor. Already we are learning from National many best practices for success in this. What struck me is research has shown that the best way to be successful in registering students is to go into the classroom for better results than say, setting up a table in a hallway.
The newest studies show that ¼ of eligible voters are between 18 and 30 years old and this continues to be the age group with the lowest turnout at the polls. Even in the presidential election , when turnout is the highest, only 45% of this age group voted in 2012 as compared to 57 % of all age groups.
The Commission on Youth Voting and Civic Knowledge Report stresses the need for civic education and political engagement in schools, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Please call our Voter Services chair, Peter Rosenthal (295–1325), to help out if only for an hour to offer; we need people to make phone calls, to actually go into the schools, to keeping the records and writing thank you notes to the schools and teachers. Any amount of time offered will be greatly welcomed!
The Nominating Committee is working on the slate for new Board members for 2014-2015. If you would like to become more active in your membership and run for an office, please call our Nominating Committee chair, Flora Schwartz (295-1238). Hope to see everyone as the temperatures are sure to warm!
Nancy Rosenthal
