Open Doors, Open Minds: Community-based Education

• A Community within a Community
• Lest We Forget
• Bridging the Gap
• Breaking Down Barriers
• Building For the Future

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Whether it is brick, steel or wood, a school is instantly recognizable as a school. One of its distinguishing characteristics is the amount of open space around it. The school is physically distanced from the surrounding community for practical purposes (playing fields and parking lots) and for quiet and safety.

But there is more than just physical distance separating most schools from their communities. The assumption that community affairs have no relevance in the life of the school and that students should not disturb the important business of the community stands as an initial barrier to any teacher trying to connect the two.

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A Community within a Community

The school is a community within a community. Almost all the activities that take place in the community take place on a smaller scale at school. People carry out tasks, engage in social interaction, play sports, share information and learn new skills. So why is it so difficult to bridge the gap between school and community?

"The separation still exists in most people's minds because what goes on at school isn't really understood by the larger community," comments Blake Seward, who teaches history at Smiths Falls District Collegiate Institute in Smiths Falls, Ontario. He has made several moves to overcome this separation in his teaching career, most notably with his Lest We Forget history project, which uses community and government resources to allow students to research World War I veterans (see "Lest We Forget," below).

"By bringing the community into education, we build a belief structure that begins to connect the school and community," he says. The community begins to believe that the school is part of the community. In return, the school and students begin to believe education is relevant in the larger community. Ultimately, this belief structure builds lifelong learners, Seward contends.

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Lest We Forget

A brief conversation at a family reunion sparked a high school research project that has gone on to captivate hundreds of students, teachers and archivists. "I found out I had a great-uncle who died at Passchendaele," recounts Blake Seward, "and I was quite upset. Why hadn't I known anything about him before?!"

As the history teacher at Smiths Falls District Collegiate Institute finished researching his great-uncle Clarence, he was struck by the realization that "not only was the research fascinating, it covered many of our Canadian history units!" Researching a World War I veteran would not only give his students a firsthand look at the events of the war, but it would also teach them valuable primary documentation research skills and give them experience writing a formal report, skills much valued by post-secondary instructors and employers.

Seward began by assigning names from the Smiths Falls cenotaph to his Grade 10 history students. The students then cross-referenced the names with local church records and sometimes contacted relatives still living in the area for information about "their soldier" - his place of birth, marital status and regiment, where and when he died, and so on. To fill in the inevitable blanks, the students turned to the National Archives for the soldier's Service Personnel Information file. This file contains information about next of kin, record and date of enlistment, regimental number and date of death. This final piece of information helped the students determine the battles their soldier fought in and where he died. With a personal interest established, students then researched more about that particular battle: its strategic importance, the battle's duration, troop movements, commanding officers and memorable incidents. The entire community got involved in the project, Seward recounts, by donating newspaper clippings, photographs and other memorabilia to aid the students' research.

Each student completed the project by writing a five- or six-page report of the detailed and verified information gathered about his or her soldier. These reports will be added to the Veterans Affairs Canada "Canada Remembers" site in a special section entitled Lest We Forget, scheduled to be launched in 2004.

Veterans Affairs Canada and National Archives staff were amazed and impressed at the commitment the high school students brought to the project, and asked Seward to create a history teaching unit that could be distributed to other teachers around the country. This teaching unit has taken the form of a template of compatible research methods and data formatting systems that can schools across Canada can use to gather and compile the stories of our country's 600 000 veterans. (Once complete, the schools send their stories to Smiths Falls District Collegiate for formatting as web pages.) Since the unit creates a "workspace" for students and teachers to carry out their research, Seward has called it The Project Room. "It provides everything a teacher needs to carry out the project in their school," explains Seward, "all the contact information, research sources, advice and information on how to structure the lessons, everything!"

The Project Room packages are available from the National Archives. Nearly 100 packages have already been sent out to teachers in every province.

For more information, contact the National Archives of Canada.

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Bridging the Gap

Getting the interaction between school and community started can be as simple as making a request. "Sometimes, they'll say 'No,'" laughs Pat Shedden, "but that's okay, because many times the answer is 'Yes!' It's important to take that first step towards the community." The diminutive and soft-spoken Shedden relies heavily on the community in her special education work with autistic children at Queensville Public School in Queensville, Ontario.

It is a matter of recognizing the unique resources available, she says, and then showing understanding, acceptance and appreciation for what is offered. Many people may actually want to help, but because of that perceived separation between the school and community are reluctant to come forward. "What do I have to offer?" they wonder. "I'm not an expert or an educator; I'm just an ordinary person."

Yet for Shedden's autistic students, this very ordinariness is invaluable. Autistic children are extremely sensitive to stimuli and anxious about change. Their anxiety and the self-calming measures they use to control it make it difficult for them to learn, both academically and socially. By regularly exposing her students to a number of social situations, Shedden is able to reduce their anxiety and teach them necessary social skills. This does not take an expert, she points out, but it does take a community that is willing to open its doors and hearts to her children.

One such social situation is the children's weekly visit to McDonald's after skating lessons (which is still another example of utilizing community resources in education, she points out). The children must line up, wait their turn and make their orders individually. It is all very ordinary, but very important. "The staff are enormously patient and understanding," Shedden explains delightedly. "They became so interested in and attached to our class that when we missed one Tuesday because of bad weather, one employee made us promise to phone next time there was a problem."

Teachers and students can also operate under the misapprehension that the community has no relevance and nothing to offer the school.

Yet, "it depends on how you look at it," comments Pascale Baillargeon. One way of looking at the small Nunavut community of Kimmirut is that it has no organized resources to offer the high school students at Qaqqalik School, she explains. But on the other hand, the community has 450 individuals with skills, talents, memories and knowledge to share with the students, and 150 students who can bring their energy, enthusiasm and ideas to the community. "It's either a challenge or a potential, an illusion or a vision."

In Kimmirut, communication between school and community is especially important, Baillargeon adds. The elders in the community are a vital resource for passing on cultural skills and information. Dissecting a walrus fetus donated by a local hunter or reading weather signs with both traditional skills and scientific instruments helps make the curriculum relevant to these students. The school, teachers and students have just as much to offer the community in return.

This two-way relationship was especially apparent in a mathematics project Baillargeon organized. She arranged for a representative of the Canada Revenue Agency to visit Kimmirut and teach her class how to prepare tax returns. The students then opened a tax preparation clinic for the community. The project had several benefits. The clinic provided a valuable service to the community. It opened the school doors to the community and let community members see what happened inside. It gave the students an interesting and relevant way to learn math skills and enabled them to make a valuable contribution to the life of the community.

Tapping into community resources can also save a lot of time, remarks John Cordukes, a science teacher at Cobourg District Collegiate Institute West in Cobourg, Ontario. "I spent hours trying to figure out an aquatics study for my students - walking up and down streams - when one phone call to the local Ministry of Natural Resources office found me a guy with all the expertise I needed."

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Breaking Down Barriers

Community involvement tells students they are important, reflects Kevin Harrison, who teaches media studies and career preparation at Timberline Senior Secondary in Campbell River, British Columbia. "When a tow truck company and the police and fire department are willing to work on a student film project for hours in the middle of the night, wow! Does that make them feel great!"

But teachers need to exercise caution when getting students and community resources together, he warns. Young people are still a bit rough-edged. Some coaching on acceptable business social skills or mediation between students and community adults may be necessary to make a project run smoothly.

Stereotypes about thuggish sullen teens, especially if they are known criminals, can make some adults nervous, agrees Patti Sebestyen, who runs the alternative Opening Doors Program in Saskatoon. "We forget that the community is often scared to venture into the school environment."

Yet, despite appearances, these are just kids! "Make a point of inviting people into the school," Sebestyen urges, "so people can realize that the kids aren't what they appear. They'll begin to think differently about what the kids can do as well." The reverse is true for kids, she notes. Many teens do not like adults either, because of past experiences with them. These stereotypes need to be broken down, says Sebestyen.

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Building For the Future

"We're educating the community's future," comments David Hildebrand, "and the community is re-discovering that fact." The business education and software applications teacher at Garden Valley Collegiate in Winkler, Manitoba, Hildebrand is taking full advantage of the community's growing willingness to be involved in education.

To illustrate, Hildebrand describes one of his class projects, creating websites for various community organizations. "Building a website for a local organization is a lot more interesting than building a site as a class assignment," he begins. "But the students also grow in their ability to interact with other people, and they learn to work with criticism, budget constraints and a deadline." These are the valuable intangible lessons that every young person needs, but traditional classrooms cannot give them.

There is an obvious benefit to students and schools in building community-based educational experiences, concludes Hildebrand, but there is an equal benefit to the community. "Students are more inclined to live, work and create businesses in an area where they've already had work experience and contacts with the business community." Knocking down the perceived barriers between the school and the community, and closing the distance between the two, does more than involve the community in the educational activity of schools; it brings new life to the communities.