How a Community Can Change a School

     We are struck, time and again, with a paralyzing fear as parents and as community members. This particular worry is about the state of our school systems. As a parent we have to evaluate the teachers, the condition of the school, and the safety measures the administration has taken to keep our students safe. Yet notice how all of these things are reflective of what the school does, not what we, as parents, do to help the school. In our current societal mood, we see education as a transaction, just like any other establishment we patronize; education is a product, not a process.

     This is where we as parents and as community stakeholders get it wrong. Education, at its core, cannot be viewed as a transaction. The community is not "purchasing" a good or service with their tax dollars. Instead, they should see it as a collaborative investment that requires participation. In our current iteration of public schooling, a majority of communities around us are the one kid in the group project who is there to do the speaking part, but not much of the research or decision making. If schools, especially public schools, are to be successful then they need active participation from the parents and community with one key expectation. It should be constructive participation. This means that yes, you can still identify a problem, but you should help to provide solutions, not just saber rattling.

     Part of the problem is an increased work and expectation load on parents in the community. It is common now for families to have multiple members employed and working several hours a week, leaving less time for communication and reflection in the household. This means that more of the social teaching has fallen on the schools. It has been left to the schools to teach social skills and behaviors where instead it should be a collaborative effort.

There's a checklist we can follow as community members, school employees, and parents if we want to create constructive and successful schools, especially in the public realm.

• Identify problems and where they come from. If it's a home issue, identify it as such and ask for resources be sent to parents in a positive way. If it's a schooling issue, identify the issue and present it to the school board or administration in a positive way. 
• Reflect on your own practices as a professional, parent, or community stakeholder. Have you been actively engaged with decision making? Are you attending parent-teacher conferences or school board meetings? Are you reflecting with your student the value of education? Are you voting for legislation or representatives that align with your beliefs on education?
• Engage with the young people in your community about their experiences in school; they're pretty smart and they have things to say...it might be time we listen.

Identify, Reflect, Engage. If we're not doing this, then our schools will continue to fail, education will continue to be pushed further down the list of priorities, and frustration will continue to rise.