Community and Belonging

I have to admit that the Community book by Peter Block, was not my most favorite read. I found that he belaboured his points and was quite repetitive. It is actually unfortunate, because his premise is absolutely solid. If we "build the social fabric and transform the isolation" in our communities we can create more supportive, positive and effective outcomes for all members of the community.

My take-aways would be that as a leader of a large community (school district) within a larger community (town or towns) I would need to make the building and strengthening of that "social fabric" a priority. Block uses quite flowery language and more "touchy-feely" speak than I am comfortable with, but the idea of focusing on the gifts and talents that each member of a group brings to the table is important. It is also key to frame meetings ("gatherings" in Blockese) in terms of defining the positive change that we wish to create.


Block's assertions about the "inversion of cause and accountability" do fit well with educational institutions. If we are functioning properly as a professional community of educators, then students would be at the center of our operations, much the way Block states that communities need to shift their focus from leaders to its citizens. Many of the steps that Block outlines for making this shift are similar to what we, in education, have been doing for a number of years now through Defour's PLC (Professional Learning Communities). I plan to integrate things such as using the power of small groups and framing powerful questions to move forward with our PLCs in the building and in the district. This coming year, I have carved out time to set up regular small group conversations using powerful questions, using "dissent conversation" and hopefully leading to "commitment conversations" in solving some of the sticky issues of improving student achievement and improving classroom instruction.