How Do We Put the "Unity" Back Into School Communities?

What is a community?

What does it mean to be part of something that is larger than yourself?

Are you part of it because it gives you a paycheck? Are you part of it because it feeds your soul in some way? Are you part of it because it is the “right” thing to do?

A community can be defined as:

1. a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common

2.a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

(Oxford Languages)

So if we say (at a school for example) that we are a community, what do we really mean? We can look at the literal definitions and make comparisons.

Is a school a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common?

Well, we are located in the same building, so there’s that. The students that populate the building are supposed to live in the same town.

Let’s dig a little deeper. Does a school foster a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests and goals?

It should.

But it doesn’t.

So, when administrators say, “Oh my school is such a close community.” I always wonder, how? Please give examples. In what way is your school a community? Do the students share common attitudes, interests and goals? Do any of you know who your students really are? Have you found ways to check in with your students and see if they are genuinely engaged in the learning process? Are they getting what they need out of school?

The wrong people make the decisions in schools. The people who have been out of the classroom for years tell the people in the classrooms how to run them. There are obvious exceptions to this. To the districts who have supervisors who also teach, kudos to you, because then they can actually lead because they are currently in the trenches with the rest of the teachers. This is not super common, but is possible.

As a teacher, if I receive a paycheck for my job, am I invested in the community? I should be. But it also goes both ways. If a teacher feels completely replaceable and like they are not valued for what they do then of course they are going to separate themselves from the community.

A lot of it is about investing in teachers, and I don’t even mean financially. I mean leadership taking the time to say hi to the teachers or having conversations even that don’t relate to school. Decent, human ways of interaction, that don’t just involve students or “work talk”. The ability to be a human first is something that is lost on many people in the workplace. It’s like, “I’m at work, so I’m going to turn on my work persona, and then when I leave I’ll go back to being me.”

I never knew how to “turn my sense of self off” at work. I am who I am all the time, whether I’m at a rehearsal for a play I’m directing, in my classroom, chaperoning a school trip, or with my friends for an evening. I don’t have the ability to alter myself for various environments, nor do I want to. I mean yes, we all have to modify a bit for various environments, a bit of code switching here and there. And that’s fine. I will do what needs to be done. But the idea that I can’t be myself in my workplace and be friendly is something that upsets me.

At the school where I’ve been teaching I made a very close friend. We were fast friends instantly, and almost inseparable. But he left for another district, and I felt like my heart was broken. There aren’t many people in this school that are kind or welcoming, and I have felt lonely since he left. I understand he did it for money and his family, and I’m happy for him. But if I felt more supported at my school, or like there was any sense of faculty camraderie maybe I wouldn’t have been so upset when he left.

And now I’m leaving. It’s evident that this school doesn’t provide the most supportive or welcoming environment and there aren’t many opportunities for growth here. I have three more days. And as I reflect on the end of the year, what I will miss most is the community I created with the Drama Club and the shows we put on. I will miss my classroom community and the way we all came together and learned as a unit. But I put a lot of heart into my teaching, in fact into everything I do. This can be a blessing but more often than not, it feels like a curse. You never get back what you give and eventually feel like it’s not worth it to give so much at all.

I hope my new school has a sense of unity, a sense of pride, a sense of community. I hope that people have shared attitudes, interests and goals. Education is in a challenging place right now, and I don’t expect perfection, but maybe there are some like-minded folks in this new school. Maybe there are some open hearts and minds. Maybe, just maybe, I will feel a sense of community there.

There are never any guarantees.

One can only hope…