Expanding
ideas about the school’s function in the community. A
first requirement is to reconsider the role of the school within
a rural community. The "factory" model of institutional
operation–a model that has dominated business,
government, and education for most of this century–has encouraged
a rigid separation of functions. Schools, once the heart of many
small towns, have largely disengaged themselves from a broader role
as community and social center. Bruce Miller reports that, in reviewing
some 250 articles and reports on rural community development, "I
was struck by the conspicuous absence of schools as collaborative
partners
in their communities"
(p. 96). To support community-based education, it’s necessary
to reclaim the
school’s role as an integral
part of the entire community’s existence.
Rethinking
the nature of teaching and learning. It’s
also necessary to expand one’s ideas about the purpose and
nature of schooling itself. Miller and Hahn (1997) observe that
school-community partnerships and community-based learning "are
not generally
viewed as traditional elements of schooling" (p. 71).
Community-based
education, as we
have described it, presumes that schools have an important role
in helping
students to become effective community members. From this perspective,
the goal of education is not merely to convey a body of knowledge
within specific subject areas; it is also to
help students to become "creative, productive, critical citizens"
(Foxfire Fund, 1998, p. 5).
Ideas
about the appropriate methods of teaching need to change as well.
Traditionally, education is classroom—and textbook—bound;
a student’s measure
of success is a test score. Community-based instruction, though
it
matches the characteristics of what we know about the most effective
ways
of teaching, is messier and more complicated than this traditional
model. Subject matter isn’t easily segregated, the learning
environment isn’t rigidly controlled, and knowledge develops
as much from student dialogue and problem-solving as it does from
teacher or text. Is it schooling when one student tutors another?
Or when students collect samples from local streams and wells to
monitor water quality? Or when students
help to remodel the kitchen of
an elderly resident? The answer is a resounding yes–and not
just in terms of citizenship and work skills. With careful planning
and reinforcement, students
will learn academic subject matter as well, and most teachers find
the task of engaging their classes in subject matter learning to
be much easier
when students see an immediate use for their academic knowledge.
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