Me and My Community

What is a community? Why do families live in communities? How do communities compare and contrast to one another? These are all example discussion questions that a teacher may ask to a class full of second graders. Most second graders have already learned about families and schools in first grade so the purpose of learning about community is to go beyond that concept into something more abstract. Learning about communities is nothing new to schools across America. In fact, I even remember learning about communities. I distinctly can recall my teacher, Mrs. Connolly having us draw either a city, suburb, or rural area where we then had to describe the characteristics of each different community.

This is a typical example of how a teacher may engage students with the topic of community.

There are various types of communities and characteristics that go along with each one. However, the dominant narrative taught in schools about communities is mostly the positive one. We see teachers talk to their students about how communities are often working towards a common goal. That every community holds the same values and everyone’s heritage is appreciated. Teacher’s suggest to student’s that every community is happy and no conflicts ever arise. Here is an example of a community based worksheet a teacher may use for his or her student’s to fill out. This worksheet suggests that just because people have something in common they must therefore belong to the same community. We often teach students that in communities everyone shares the same interests and has the same goals.

From my own experience, I can attest that this is not always the case. In my town of about 40,000 people there is constant conflict between town committee elections, disagreements between the school board, and crime such as theft and robberies. Just because all of these events happens does not make my town any less of a community. There are still plenty of people who share the same values regarding education, religion, or even supermarket choice. However, there are various religions in just this one suburban town. Muslims, Catholics, Jews, etc. are all apart of my community. A community is a community despite all the disagreements and lack of common characteristics.

Furthermore, teachers tend to teach their student’s what their idea of a community is. If a teacher is teaching a white suburban class then he or she may focus on the idea of Catholics being a community or only focus on the characteristics of that specific town. This is not wrong but there is SO much more to communities. What about other students who live in poverty? What does their community look like? And how is it different from their own? How might a city school look different from their suburban community? The discussions with kids are endless!

Having students compare and contrast different communities is a good start to get them thinking of the many different ways there are to do things. This particular worksheet is great to distinguish how a child growing up in a city may have different experiences than a child growing up in a rural area.

There are plenty of worksheets out there to have students work on to get them thinking about communities. Although having them interact with different communities or there own community is probably the best way to get them thinking critically and histroically.

Another way to teach students about communities is to have them engage in a community service project! Here, students created baskets for underprivileged children where they will then send them away to the less fortunate. During these type of projects, a teacher can enhance community by talking about the community that the students are giving to. This is a great leaning opportunity for students to dig into another community that is much different from their own. And a plus to it is it also makes kids feel inspired and they will want to take action!

This website is a great recourse for teachers looking to engage their students in service learning type activities. It states that some teachers have approached community service projects by connecting certain academic areas and or themes to the community. Others “have designed service-learning curricular initiatives by structuring academic lessons around community issues…” (Bartsch 2001). Overall, this website serves as a guide in sharing successful CSL (Community Service Learning) instructional practices.

There are plenty of issues in every community and it is not appropriate to talk about all the issues presented especially with young elementary students. However, discussing what conflict is and how it arises is a great start. A teacher teaching about community can talk to his or her students about what conflict is and how to resolve it. This is a great way to get kids thinking about how to solve their own conflcits.

This is a cute and creative way to go over possible scenarios that can happen in a student’s own community and how they can go about to resolve the issues. Talking about community should be teaching kids about life skills. Like communicating with people that may appear different from themselves, taking part in community service projects, and learning what conflict is and how to solve it.

Discussing community with young students and talking about the reality of communities ties into teaching “what really happened.” With many social studies topics there seems to be a common theme of leaving certain details out or only telling a “single story.” The challenge of teachers today is to teach honesty even if it may offend someone. This teaches kids to be thoughtful citizens. So, by teaching students all about various communities and conflict that aries through them students can become more open minded students and more importantly attentive citizens to their own community.

Ultimately, for every dominant narrative there is most likely a counter-narrative as well. The challenge for teachers today is to be constantly exploring other perspectives and to question every article, textbook, and even discussion that occurs in the classroom! For every dominant narrative there is always a voice missing from it.