BUILDING FOR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY - Kennedy Bibliothek

INTRODUCTION
1. Change and the development of new ideas have characterized American
education,.especially in recent years. Almost every aspect of the educational
system and of the philosophy of American education has been examined
and continues to be reexamined, including such basic elements as general
goals (skill development or the accumulation of knowledge), the age of
students (5-18 or all ages), and relationships between the school and community.
2. Community education has emerged as a movement encompassing many of
these developments and changes. It is expanding and evolving rapidly today.
This paper will describe its history, its many different aspects,
and the ways in which the United States Government is contributing to its
expansion.
3. Community education means many different things to the different
people and groups involved in it. It is generally agreed that community
education means the increased involvement of children, adults, and senior
citizens in activities in the school and community; increased use of
school facilities by the community; increased use of community resources;
increased cooperation and coordination between public and private agencies
and organizations, working together to provide a variety of services to the
community; and increased participation of community members in a formal
advisory role to the schools. More generally, community education is a
way to meet local needs - educational, social, health-related, recreational
and cultural - through the comprehensive development of local resources.
4. Those goals, however, are only a part of community education as it
is now understood. The other major aspect is the development of a process
of community governance. As articulated by Jack Minzey and Clyde LeTarte:
"The ultimate goal of community education is to develop a process
by which members of the community learn to work together to identify
problems and to seek out solutions' to these problems. It is through