How do you get people to feel connected, how do you get them to care? Let’s begin with our children.
It was hard for me to view and listen to Windfield’s remarks without thinking about school buildings and school districts. Wildfield says that “feeling connected to where you live is a vital ingredient to the recipe in creating sustainable and resilient communities. If you feel connected to where you live, you are more likely to care about it, and want to protect it and want to participate.” Is this true of where you learn?
View this TedxTalk - it is not about a school district or school building but will hopefully promote some out of the box thinking.
As you watch, think about this: How can we best use our communities to support the education of our children while also encouraging community participation?
What if we look long-term and consider the best ways to use our communities to educate, nurture and to grow citizens that care - simply by identifying the embedded learning opportunities that exist in every community. This is community engagement at its finest. What would it take to get this conversation started in your district?
The impact of these ideas on districts engaging in authentic community engagement as opposed to an institutional process or checklist is powerful. What do you think?