American Education Research Association
One of the seldom discussed functions of a school in this age of focus on preparing
students for university and employment is the school’s role in building and strengthening a nation’s sense of community. Lacking a sense of community, any
group, no matter how large or small, is merely a loose collection of individuals.
In De Re Publica Cicero described a community this way: “A people (community) is
not just a collection of human beings brought together in any sort of way, but an assemblage of people… associated in an agreement with respect to justice and a partnership for the common good” (italics mine). More recently, John W. Gardner in On Leadership described a community this way:
The thing that makes a number of individuals a society rather
than a population or a crowd is the presence of shared attitudes,
habits and values, a shared conception of the enterprise of which
they are part, and shared views of why it is worthwhile for the
enterprise to continue to flourish. (p.142)
We have a problem in America—a problem that schools with a proper focus can help solve. The problem? We are losing our awareness of the importance community and are in danger of forgetting how necessary community is to our survival.
Signs of Disintegration
Look around; the signs are everywhere: in the inner city where gangs, drugs and
violence tear the fabric of communities to pieces, in Washington where partisan divide has made it impossible for leaders in different parties to come together for the good of the country, in corporate America which believes that preying on the less fortunate is just part of “doing business.”
And if we are inclined to simply blame politicians and corporate leaders or gangs and drug lords for this deep divide, we need only turn on talk radio for a few minutes and listen to how people speak to one another, or more specifically yell at one another, to be disabused of that notion.
Signs that we are becoming a deeply divided collection of individuals rather than a
people, a society, a partnership for the common good abound: the 99 percent vs. the 1 percent, Wall Street vs. Main Street, gated “communities,” fact checking organizations to expose the lies we tell one another.
In Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community Robert D. Putnam writes that since the 1970s social capital, the ties that bind us together as a society, “has eroded steadily and sometimes dramatically…” This erosion, he notes, is
particularly noticeable in the younger generation.
The Consequences
As a nation, and even as individuals, we can ill-afford to surrender our sense of being part of a community. John Gardner described some of what happens to us as individuals when we are torn loose from the context of community:
Individuals often experience a loss of meaning, a sense of
powerlessness. They lose the conviction that they can
influence the events of their lives or the life of the community
(noncommunity) in which they live. Some of the consequences
are dealt with in the psychiatrist’s office, some in the system of
criminal justice. Drugs and alcohol claim their share (p.113)
Sound familiar?
Robert Putnam cities another reason why we as individuals ought to be concerned about the destruction of the fabric of community: “people who are socially disconnected are between two and five times more likely to die from all causes, compared with matched individuals who have close ties with family, friends and the community. (p. 326-327)
If these concerns are not enough here are two more. When an awareness of
community dissolves, trust in others goes with it, making it difficult to conduct business and near impossible to solve complex problems.
So we are faced with a challenge—the challenge of restoring our commitment to
community. It is a challenge made more difficult because we live in a society that is driven by capitalism, for as Peter Barnes in Capitalism 3.1 points out: “Capitalism and community aren’t natural allies.” One emphasizes individual acquisition and
consumption, the other connecting to and, at times, assisting others. One is driven by a desire for monetary gain while the other is motivated by a wish to share with and help others. (p.101) That doesn’t mean that the two can’t coexist, but it does mean that if we want to rebuild and preserve community, we will have to curb the excesses of individualism that capitalism can push us into.
How Schools Can Help
That’s where schools with the proper focus come in; they teach young people, who will eventually become adults, that they must balance self-interest with respect for community. They teach students how to and why they must forge a partnership for
the greater good.
How Do They Do That?
Robert Fulgham in All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten gives a list of what good schools with the right focus teach that builds commitment to community: share everything, play fair, don’t hit people, put things back where you found them, clean up your own mess, don’t take things that aren’t yours, say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody, lead a balanced life. (Follow this link for the complete list) www.peace.ca/kindergarten.htm
Certainly it takes more than one year in kindergarten to learn these values, but are they not the values that promote and maintain connection with others—in other words, community? One of the important contributions of schools then is to ensure that students learn the importance of these values and of practicing them. Indeed schools at their best are all about caring and sharing and establishing a partnership for the common good. That is, I believe, a major reason why the American Education Research Association says that education must become the agent of change rather than the object of change; there is too much in our society that is teaching a different set of values (think
advertising).
But to be an agent of change, one that helps revive Americans' dedication to community, educators must be willing to do something that they seem to find
increasingly difficult to do—challenge the status quo and those who wish to preserve it.
Absent that willingness, education, and those who deliver it, will, as James Moffett pointed out in The Universal Schoolhouse, simply pass on to students all the diseases of the larger world, and our nation’s commitment to community will continue to suffer as a result. The choice is clear. The question remains: Are educators willing and ready to be the agents of change our country needs?
I welcome your comments and views on this important subject.