Yesterday I wrote a blog where I vented.  To my surprise, fellow teachers offered positive feedback and encouraging words.  I think that's a sign that it is slowly emerging as an online community for teachers.  I'm not sure what to think of this.  I feel ambivalent about the notion that community can exist online.

On one hand, I am skeptical.  Despite reading blogs and seeing an occasional picture, there is so much missing.  We are "interacting" with a lit-up screen, a sea of streaming digital information - a cascade of ones and zeroes.  I cannot see the twinkle of another's eyes, hear the laughter, share a cup of coffee while I lament that Starbucks has officially become another chain restaraunt.  I cannot sense the awkward silence when I write something stupid.  Rather, I have the time to go back and delete it or edit it before it's too late.  I believe that community is a deeply personal concept.  It happens when there is a lack of choice, a close proximity and a sense that there are people that I need.  (Incidentally, I think it's odd that we didn't start writing books about community until we lost it.  In the fifties and sixties, community was taken for granted)

On the other hand, this site functions as a sort of surrogate community for me.  It is a place with no geography, not physical contact, no body language.  Yet, it is still a place.  I feel more connected to the teaching profession and I feel less like I'm crazy for believing what I believe.  The comments and blogs provide the type of interaction that is missing from our staff lounge.  Already, as I read blogs, there is a sense that I am getting to know people - even if it is in that bizarre, digital kind of way; and for that, I feel thankful.

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