Neighbour Friendly

5 comments Classrooms, techlearning

Feb 27

When I get an idea or concept in my head, I seem to see it show up in all sorts of interesting places. This story takes a few turns so be patient.

The whole idea of community and creating community in our classrooms has been a very important theme in both my current class as well as the work I do in Prairie South.  In reading Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky references the book Bowling Alone a few times so I figured I should buy it. Essentially the book deals with the decline of community in America and examines things like civic involvement, religious affiliation, and formal and informal groups. In essence, since the mid sixties, the social capital of Americans (I see Canada as having similar experiences) has declined quite dramatically. For many reasons, we are choosing to spend less time in community and more time as individuals, thus the title Bowling Alone.

I read the first part of the book as I flew to Portland for ITSC. I had the opportunity to spend time with Tim Lauer and his family. They live in a very nice neighborhood and Portland in general has some wonderful neighborhoods. As I spoke about our current endeavor to build a new house I discussed our challenge to avoid building a “garagehouse”. In many of our neighbourhoods lots are only 50 feet and thus people wanting a two car garage end up building homes that look like this.

In contrast, Portland would not allow this type of home because it’s not “neighbour friendly”. I believe there is also a bylaw in place to prevent that from happening. Instead this is the type of community they envision:

Front Porch Party by fensterbme

From my experience and from the data in Bowling Alone, these types of gatherings are few and far between.
Fast forward to this week and I see a posting from Kim McGill showing Rich Farmer and a little change he’s making in his classroom to encourage community.

The point in Bowling Alone is that community gets eroded away slowly and before we know it we’re operating in ways that make community very difficult.  So, all that to say, if we believe community is valuable for our schools, what are we doing to make sure it happens? Is there something about the design, structure or regiments that would not make your school “neighbour friendly”?

Cross posted on the TechLearning Blog

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  • Gerry

    Many of the houses in our neighbourhood are sort of “garage houses,” but I have to tell you, the garage next door is often the centre of the community on our block. Big hockey games, World Series, Halloween parties etc. I hear what your saying, but in a place where winter in 5 months long, the heated garage can be a community builder. I think we just need to work within the environments we have for the best.

    • http://ideasandthoughts.org Dean Shareski

      While I agree Gerry that we should try and work within existing environments, in the case of the classroom and the video I posted, we should be more aware of how we can change and create environments that foster community rather than hinder it. I’m sure there are classrooms where students sit in rows of desks and yet community exists. I’m simply saying, that designing and manipulating spaces will facilitate our goal and that many of us aren’t seeing this.

  • Debbie

    Back in the 60s, my SE side neighborhood had block mothers. Seems like no one knows what I’m talking about. In that Chicago neighborhood, at least, there were orange, house shaped decals that people would place in their windows. That way a kid would know a house was a safe haven they could go to if they had to wait for a parent to come home. My mom worked, and, in the early to mid-sixties, that was still unheard of. If I got home before she did, I’d head off for one of the neighbors. When I’d see her arrive home, I’d go and join her. I always felt safe.

    Now many women work. More uncommon is a woman like me who is a stay at home mom. Used to be that you knew your child was being watched if they went down the street. Now it’s not a given. There is no longer an unspoken agreement of you watch my kids, I’ll watch yours. No children are as safe. Doesn’t mean that kids didn’t end up at risk back in the 60s. But it’s a lot more likely they will now. At least from my perspective. Community seems non-existent. If I have some difficulty, say, I have no idea who to turn to. Sadly, I feel I have greater community online than in real life.

    My impression is that we are all more isolated. Community is catch as catch can. This neighborhood is more “suburban” in feel even though it’s on Chicago’s NW side. I’m more likely to hop into my car than walk somewhere. In our previous neighborhood, I used to walk all the time. I actually knew people. I take it back. I know some of the dog owners, but I wouldn’t know how to reach them if I needed them. It’s much more haphazard.

    I’m guessing trying to form communities within a school have similar challenges. Diversity is wonderful, but it also brings about cultural differences and suspicion of the “other” that didn’t exist forty years ago. Memos from the school come addressed in four different languages. Not sure how to bridge cultural gaps. We are the odd family here. We are neither Polish nor Hispanic. And we have this handicapped child. A lot of people find that daunting in and of itself. Creates a feeling of isolation.

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  • http://timlauer.org Tim Lauer

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  • http://bahslerd.wordpress.com Danielle Maley

    I responded to this post with a post of my own. Check it out. http://bahslerd.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/community/

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