Community Absence

I sometimes wonder during the year, where's the community?

Schools are supposed to be community centers where members of the community can go and exercise their rights. But too often I'm left wondering, where is it?

Granted, I teach in a very outspoken yet uninvolved neighborhood, it just scares me that there is no actual mobilized community. What would it take to get the families of students to actually create an identity focused on development?

I talked with a few locals in the area and they seem to agree that there really isn't a focus on bettering the community. One anecdote described how residents in the area were more interested in waiting overnight to buy a pair of $250 sneakers than raise a finger for their neighbors.

I mean people do that for movies like Harry Potter and Star Wars, but for sneakers? For $250? I sometimes think I've been teleported to another planet. It's like I'm in the twilight zone sometimes when I hear of this kind of stupidity. Some residents commented that it's just a phase in their lives (a really expensive and meaningless phase). But the fear is the fact that it really isn't a phase, that this is how they're going to live their lives. Chasing after $250 shoes instead of paying their rent, along with other unacceptable life compromises...

I remember in Obama's speech to the NAACP about how communities have to step up and help raise children in the neighborhoods. Even though kids are acting stupid and they're not your child, they still get a kick in the ass. I'll believe that when I see it...