Thursday, January 31, 2008 4:01 AM
by
jtspencer
do you really want community?
Our district is spending millions of dollars on PLC. It might sound like a drug (which might be nice, because we could turn it into a quick profit and actually spend more on things like books and technology) but it actually means Professional Learning Community. It's not surprising that we are embracing the notion of community. After all, "community" is a trendy buzzword in all segments of society.
When I go to Starbucks, they are not selling coffee (though their coffee does resemble liquid happiness). They sell the image of community. From the lighting to the paint choices, the entire atmosphere says, "this is the place to be," despite the reality that it is a glorified fast food chain. White flight no longer means moving to the suburbs. Now people can live in master planned communities - huge, gated monstrocities that work as suburbs of suburbs, usually marketed with a sense of the nostalgia and Americana. Shows like Friends and Seinfeld and Cheers became popular because we all want to be where everybody knows your name and shouts "Norm" when you arrive.
The problem is we want community without cost. We want the option of community in the form of a gated housing development. We want the image of it in the form of an attachment to a sports franchise. We want to believe that a megachurch can function, not as a business but as a community church or that a school can be more than a knowledge factory and actually work as a learning community.
Something within me still yearns for community. There's a loneliness that cannot be soothed with a Starbucks or a nice home in the suburbs of the suburbs. What is it that gets in the way of community?
As much as I love technology, I know that technology dehumanizes people. We start to act like androids who "need" our cell phones and iPods and laptops. Professionalism and the business model get in the way, because we start to hide behind titles and can't be ourselves. Community thrives when people need each other. When I think of having a sense of community, I consider soldiers in fox holes or neighbors in the Great Depression, not employees in cubicles. Choice is another enemy to community. As long as people have tons of options they are never feeling the need to be with others. But a lack of choice brings people together. Size is a big factor as well. We use words like "global community" or tag a huge church with the name "community," but numbers have to be small for us to know each other deeply.
I feel like there is a group of us at our school who form a community. Some might call it a clique, but the reality is it is a fragile community. We have certain shared values and an unspoken philosophy of education. We don't have many formal, scheduled meetings. Instead we hash out our ideas in free-flowing discussions during a prep period or after school. At times it can be difficult. I upset a close friend in my community and his reaction was less an issue of a professional mishap and more the feeling of hurting a friend. Yet I do feel like I have a place where everybody knows my name.