A Good Little School

6. Belonging and Sense of Community

If you feel like you have connections to other people, then you will be more willing to do things with the community. People want to belong. It is important to have that concept of belonging. —An Open School Teacher The third dimension of the pie is social. This dimension is the heart of what the Open School is and does. They strive to create a harmony of strong individual voices where the needs of both the individuals and the group are met. This begins with the immediate community, like an immediate family, of teachers, students, and administrators, and then like concentric circles, pushes out to include families, and finally, neighborhoods and the world. This chapter explores these three social circles. Poems, stories, and anecdotes express how different stakeholders in the community have experienced a sense of belonging in the Open School. How do I fit in? Do I have the same values and philosophy as the school? How do I find my place here? As families, teachers, and administrators enter a new school, these are often the questions they ask. “Fitting in” doesn’t happen overnight; it usually takes a long time to meet other parents, know the teachers and administrators, and feel like it’s your school. New teachers think they know what the philosophy and the beliefs are, but putting them into practice is another story. When you begin, you constantly question your practice and hope that           Belonging and Sense of Community 67 those who have been around awhile don’t admonish you for “not doing it the right way.” One new teacher wrote the following poem: How It Was For Me This is how it was for me when first came to the Open School . . . as a new teacher coming into a place that has such history, it felt like a puzzle I had to figure out This was not an ordinary puzzle. This puzzle has many pieces I cannot see all the pieces I feel a lot of them though. No one tells me what to do no one tells me what to teach team members ask how I am feeling and what support can they give me. What is this place? Is it a school? Is it a community? Is this actually my life? I can be as creative as I want The kids are teaching me to play “knock out” on the basketball court I can say what I feel in meetings Staff do not come to meetings to do paper work they come to talk and process through issues they come to celebrate this school Our Principal reads us children’s literature This is a tough place to slip away to hide from your stuff to not do the work that needs to be done The work on our person to be a better person to help children be better people 68 A Good Little School You really have to walk your talk here I am the student, the teacher, the advisor, the friend Maybe I do not have to figure this puzzle out Maybe it is not a puzzle but an ongoing drama of life and I am just one of the players who is lucky enough to be here THE FIRST CIRCLE OF COMMUNITY: OUR STUDENTS AND OUR STAFF From the first day of school, we build community within our walls. At all levels there are activities created around team building, teaching for peace, and establishing rules for respect and care. As new students enter at the high school level, they participate in a wilderness trip so that they may begin to learn and understand how to work as a team and build confidence in their own skills. A lot of new kids break the rules because they do not understand the sense of community. A high school teacher explained, “We ask questions like, Is this something you can handle? Can a friend go with you? What kind of support do you need? These are things we guide students through. We don’t have the conversation for them, although sometimes, especially at first, you do need to feed it to them!” How do you teach responsibility and citizenship to a P-12 community ? Teachers say that it is ongoing and you have to keep at it. Teaching responsibility and citizenship in the community is something you have to think about all the time with even the youngest students...