BUILDING FOR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY - Kennedy Bibliothek

47. The remainder of this paper will concentrate on various mechanisms
for community involvement which have emerged from these and other case
studies. But "before we go on to these, it might be useful to summarize
briefly some of the main themes we have touched on so far.
a) The self-identity of communities and neighborhoods, at least in
the United States, has tended to occur in a spirit of revolt
against the trends in our society towards universal sameness.
In some cases, self-identity has been achieved through the focus
of an actual project. The Human Resources Center in Pontiac and
the Queensgate II Town Center in Cincinnati are examples of this.
In other cases, as in Swinbrook and Cedar Riverside, self-identity
has occurred through the focus of an issue.
b) In the perception of the citizens of such communities, education
has been one of the factors tending to undermine the richness and
the stability of neighborhoods, particularly older urban neighborhoods.
Successful students enter the mainstreams of professional
or technocratic careers. After graduation from universities and
colleges they migrate to the suburbs of their own or other cities.
In doing so, they leave the older neighborhoods (urban and rural)
to their ageing parents and to education's rejects. The suburbs
acquire homogeneity. The older neighborhoods, losing variety
and leadership, are lock-stepped into decline. Neither situation
is regarded as good.
c) The perceptions of national planners and policy makers, which in
turn are translated into programs by various public departments,
sometimes differ markedly from the perceptions of citizens in
particular communities and neighborhoods. For example, a national
policy to train more scientists and engineers may be translated
into financial subsidies being made available to schools, colleges
and universities for particular types of equipment and curricula
in accord with specifications drawn up at the national level.
The result is that potentially rich local resources tend to be
overlooked because the national programmers are insensitive to
them, or have no mechanisms for including them. And among the
continuing chain of results are a weakening of local self-regard
and a failure to root education directly and firmly into the daily
creative life and resources of the community. Although this is,
of course, a simplified example one has only to extend this theme
across other aspects of education to see how local cultural traditions,
religious traditions, and other, community ties become
undermined.
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