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Importance Of Building Community In Schools

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Organizations tend to face many unique challenges. One of these challenges, especially in schools, is building a sense of community. Thomas J. Sergiovanni’s Building Community in Schools, first published in 1994, asserts that in order for schools to improve in any and all aspects of the school environment, the school should first place an emphasis on community building. Sergiovanni was a professor of education at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas where he taught in the school leadership program and in the teacher education program. He worked in the education field from the time of his graduation from the State University of New York in 1958 until his retirement in 2009. During that time, he authored more than 30 textbooks and journal articles.
Throughout Building Community in Schools, Sergiovanni repeatedly refers to two Russian terms: gemeinschaft (community) and gesellschaft (society). He uses these terms in order to better describe the community building process within schools. The main theme of this book is that every person within a school plays an important role in how effective the school can become by building on the basic premise that a team can accomplish much more than an individual. The author touches on how we are losing a sense of community and why this is not in the best interest of our children. He also expounds on the importance of community building, not only in schools, but why it is essential to our development as human beings. This book is a must read for any educator as it gives great insight into the importance of community in education.
The book starts with a preface in which Sergiovanni builds the framework for the importance of community in schools. Sergiovanni states that when a school has a sense of community it “lifts both teachers and students to higher levels of understanding, commitment, and performance—beyond the reaches of the shortcomings and difficulties they face in their everyday lives.” Once again, this is the basic premise for the entire book: that more can be accomplished by a team than an individual.
The beginning of the book focuses on how community loss has come about, how it is affecting our schools, and why it is important to rebuild community.

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