Photo courtesy of Carol Cimino, SSJ, Ed.D.
Anyone who has been involved in Catholic schools knows that the glue that holds those schools together is the quality of the school community. Descriptions such as “our school is like a family” or “we all belong here” are significant signs that people recognize the existence of a community in the school.
When A Nation at Risk, a document that provided data on the effectiveness of American schools, was published in 1983, it exposed the key datum that guaranteed the success of a school: social capital. This concept defined the existence of shared values among different members of the school’s constituents and the corresponding success of the mission of the school.
In fact, here is how Catholic schools were described in the 1983 document:
“Catholic schools have been cited as a positive example showing academic performance higher than public schools, even for disadvantaged students. Research suggests that this is due to the characteristics of Catholic education, such as a strong sense of community, local control, and a focus on student achievement.”
The sense of “belonging” is paramount to this generation of students, especially teenagers, 40 years later. It urges them to join online gaming and chat websites, and to take on nefarious challenges that often involve great risks to themselves and others.
The National Standards and Benchmarks for Excellent Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools, Second Edition, lays out the responsibility for the creation and sustenance of community on the school leader. Standard 6.4 states: The leader/leadership team establishes and supports networks of collaboration at all levels within the school community to advance excellence.
Thus, the first and foremost task for the Catholic school leader is the creation and nurturing of a mission-driven, mutually supportive group of people—adults and children—who care not only for the mission of the school, but for each other in a gospel-oriented milieu. Once that task is undertaken, all other aspects of the school fall into place; the leader has surrounded him/herself with people ready to take on whatever comes.
So, how does one assess the quality and quantity of community in a school? David Brooks’ The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life (2019) offers some valuable insight into this assessment. He lists several earmarks of thriving and dying communities.
Thriving communities, according to Brooks:
Build on dreams;
View change as a collective endeavor;
Value doing over the doer;
See problems as opportunities;
Take risks;
Use power to empower others.
In other words, thrivers are future-oriented, mission-minded, and collectively responsible.
Dying communities, however, according to Brooks:
Have more memories than dreams;
Are conflict-and risk-averse;
Use power for control;
Emphasize appearances over substance;
See opportunities as problems;
Value maintenance over mission.
Communities that are dying, in other words, are more interested in looking in the rearview mirror than through the windshield. As someone once said, “The seven last words of a dying organization are, ‘but we’ve always done it this way!’”
Just as important as it is for schools to assess their academic excellence, it is vital for schools to assess their most important asset, their community. It is hoped that these benchmarks of thrivers and dyers can be used to assess the quality and quantity of community within the Catholic school. A deep dive into the marks of thrivers and dyers should encourage school leaders and collaborative groups to parse these marks and take steps to ensure that the school is not only surviving but thriving.
There are some practical steps that school leaders can take to create and ensure the existence of community. Here are some suggestions:
The National Rosary Crusade of the 1950’s had the motto:” The family that prays together stays together.” That is true not only of families, but of school communities. Regular opportunities for prayer, days of retreat, or recollection reinforce the sense of shared purpose among participants.
Christian service projects unite children and adults in a shared effort to alleviate want and suffering. Working shoulder to shoulder to create, serve, and clean up makes for healthy camaraderie among children and adults. Prayer and reflection after the service activity solidify the motivation and purpose behind it.
The “I” in team. The effective school leader can use the school’s mission statement to inspire every member of the school community to embrace that mission, and to understand that it’s not just the principal’s job, but everyone’s job to see to it that the mission is observed and promoted. Daily recitation of the mission statement, posting the statement all over the school campus, and including it in the school’s communications make everyone aware of its existence and importance.
“The family that plays together stays together.” People remember fun times together, and students remember the days when games and family picnics were hosted by the school. Simple events such as bowling nights, family movie nights, goofy hat days, and dress up like a saint days are all part of the memory-making that cement the sense of community in the school.
There was a time when the concept of social capital, that is, the sharing of values, was quite palpable, especially in parish schools.
The parish was the center of worship, education, and social life. There are still some precincts of the country where people announce what parish they are from, rather than what neighborhood or street.
The individualistic culture in which we live runs counter to our belief, as Catholics, that the Church is, indeed, the “people of God.” If our Catholic schools are to continue to meet the unmet needs of young people and their families, they must continue to be welcoming places. Taking the measure of the quality and quantity of our school community is key.
Merely proclaiming community is not enough. Creating community, nurturing that sense of belonging among all parts of the school community, and truly welcoming all comers is the most important task we can shoulder.
The individualistic culture in which we live runs counter to our belief, as Catholics, that the Church is, indeed, the “people of God.”
Carol Cimino, SSJ, Ed.D.is a NCEA author and Catholic education consultant.carolcimino795@gmail.com