A Time for Community

At a time when more demands are made on teachers and fewer resources are made avail- able to them, we need to widen our perspective on how to provide the best education for our children. Last year, I read a provocative article by David S. Seeley (author of Education Through

Partnership, Ballinger, 1981) in Education Week.1 It was about the need not for innovation, actually, but for a return to something quite old in education. We are “at the cusp of a cru- cial change in our basic attitude toward education,” he writes, one that will:

. . . make all the difference in our success: a shift from the current common assump-

tion that education is a responsibility delegated to schools alone (the way firefighting, policing, and defense have been delegated to specialized agencies) to the concept that education must be accepted as a shared responsibility of home, school, and community. Many—not all—parents and teachers already instinctively know this. But our insti-

tutional relationships for more than a century have moved in the opposite direction, toward bureaucratic schooling that de-emphasizes responsible roles for students, par- ents, and communities.

Mr. Seeley points out that holding schools solely responsible for chil-

dren’s success is unfair, given that many out-of-school factors come into play; such as poverty, poor parenting, and health problems. But there is hope, and his article features some wonderful situations in which schools, parents, and communities come together with dramatic, positive results. “This particular change is one I believe our society is ready to make,” he states. We join him in that hope and offer this Col- laborating with Your Community issue, presenting many examples of enriched and effective education across the nation.

Jenny Mears reports on community mapping in this issue. Here, students use Google Maps and a digital projector to compile information onto a large base map.

—Heather Taylor

1. Seeley, David, “Parent and Community Engagement: Has Its Time Finally Come?,” Education Week, 30 (2011): 26-27.

Connect

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jenny mears