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Publisher's
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| Fall 1999, v15-4 | ||||||
| The theme of this issue poses one
of the greatest challenges in the full and healthy development of young people--the
relationship between schools and communities. In the past few years I have begun
thinking and talking more about education and less about school. The difference is
a crucial one, for the word "education" conveys a process of learning that
is directly related to life. "School," on the other hand, most often refers
to an institution and its curricula, which may or may not be about learning in its
best sense. So, the challenge becomes, how do we integrally link the two? One is hard-pressed to think of how young people can acquire the wide array of knowledge and skills necessary for the 21st century without schools and community-based organizations working in equal partnership. While community-based organizations (CBOs) that embrace community youth development (CYD) offer a range of valuable programs, their effectiveness would increase geometrically if schools developed a similar approach and collaborated openly with them. In so doing, schools would strengthen their role as the primary formal educator while gaining depth and breadth in their capacity to educate the whole child-including the cognitive, affective, and social realms of development. CBOs would gain greater access to youth and the resources that schools can provide-physical as well as educational-thus becoming more effective in meeting their goals. Communities would be the big winners. Imagine schools and CBOs working together, intentionally choosing to focus on lifelong education, engaging youth in designing their own learning processes and activities, and enabling them to become partners with adults in creating safer and healthier places for us all to live. The power of such collaboration is awesome. Progressive educators are already moving in this direction. Their example points out that the traditional view, which holds that in- and out-of-school activities are unconnected and substantively different, is both archaic and intuitively wrong. This view has lead to false dichotomies, for example, between learning and fun, which have long permeated school agendas and led to dry, experientially-devoid education. The fragmentation of the cognitive from the affective and social realms of development has led to the disastrous conclusion that schools need only educate for the three R's. Similarly, the dichotomy between individual and social responsibility has over-emphasized individual over collective efforts and rights. These false views of reality have not served us well. From John Dewey on, growing research and practice show that youth, if they are to be effective citizens in a democratic society, require a holistic education that prepares them cognitively, affectively, and socially. Democratic values and group problem solving are learned habits of the mind, best acquired through experience. School can be the natural place for reflection and analysis, and the community can provide the perfect laboratory. The power of this emerging idea of schools and community-based organizations, collaborating in "educating" youth to participate, brings unique and exciting potential to our work and great hope for the future. All of us at the local, state, regional, and national level, who have a stake in our youth and the future, would do well to follow the orders of Star Trek's Captain Picard and "make it so." -Della Hughes  |
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