 This new book challenges educators to think differently about the relationship of schools and communities. Instead of suggesting ways that school leaders might realize greater support from the community surrounding the school, the stories shared in this book describe a school that, itself, became a community. The book is about leadership, learning, extended family, and neighborhood. It promotes the adoption of some very different ways of thinking about parental participation and neighborhood involvement. In the stories that are told in the book, schools are viewed as places where people come together, where they find the vision for their school, and where they determine what it is that they all have to offer in order that they might accomplish the mission that they have, collectively, set out for themselves. In the process, everyone in the school community takes on a leadership role. The fundamental purpose of the book is to stimulate thoughtful, caring leadership in schools; it is meant to serve as a guidebook for school leaders seriously engaged in a journey of school improvement and community building. Our schools urgently need leaders who are strong educators and community builders. Such school leaders must be able to gather in all the people who care about the school and they must honor them. That is, they need to call forth the people's life stories, gifts and talents. These stories, gifts and talents will actually create the community, one which is better able to meet everyone's needs. The
stories shared in the book, and the reflections that are provided,
offer an elegantly simple framework - rather than a list of "dos
and don'ts" or a recipe - for using a grassroots approach to
school reform. The book suggests various ways to creatively deal with
the social transformations of recent decades, while at the same time
continuing to focus effectively on the central purposes of the school
- learning and teaching.
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here to learn more about the book
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