Chapter 4: Community Connections

Chapter 4 was based on the connection between a school, and it's surrounding community. This section of the book focused on children needing more than JUST a typical school day and school routine to properly and sufficiently educate a child. School is more than just a step in our lives to teach us facts and routines, it should be teaching us life skills to carry out throughout our lives. One factor that brings community and school together is having a school within walking distance of a child's neighborhood. This being done in a safe way, for example, having parents looking out along the walking route to insure safely, allows a child to experience their own neighborhood and be a part of the community outside of school walls every day. From my own experience, I lived about a mile from both my high school and my elementary school. I either walked or rode my bike when weather permitted. I loved it, it woke me up in the morning, and I got to see so many people driving by and waving. It made me feel comfortable in my town. On the other hand, I had to ride a bus 15 minutes to get to my middle school. That was awful! Scenery just flies by with no indication of where I was, it being an over crowded bus with tiny windows. All I saw every morning was the bus driver and the kids I would be with all day. The Third Teacher suggests that parents get together to make this goal happen for their neighborhood, if it is important to them. Ask for a different location for the school, make up a safe walking route, get involved! An example the book gave was of a group of parents who took the initiative to go ahead and build a new school themselves, with donated or re-used materials. This connects the community in a great way, the reason being that the community built the school, or just that they were involved in the planning and voicing their needs. The community will forever want to be involved with the school, feeling that it is a part of them. Another way to get community to mesh with schools is to have community facilities IN the schools. For example, a pool could be open to the public, maybe even including after school and evening programs to get kids from poor environments into healthy ones. Adults from the community would use this facility, and be a part of the school itself. When building a school, listening to the voices of the children and parents is super important. It will help make the children feel comfortable with their surroundings. They will want to come to school everyday. This could include bringing differing cultures into the school through teaching as well as decorating. If a diversity of cultures is represented on the walls, those minorities will feel included. That is SO important for healthy learning. To sum it up, environment is key to a child's learning, and community can make that happen. By getting community involved, children will become feeling safe and comfortable and accepted, hopefully guiding them toward being excited for school and learning. The children will begin to learn about community and how to be a productive member of their own communities! That is an important life skill.