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Class group hug
The Habit of Community lets us know that we are not, in fact, alone. Each of the other Habits of Love ultimately leads to this most critical, life-affirming habit. –Ed Bacon
Life-affirming, that is the reason, the meaning, of community. We are all in this together. Community is designed to help us through the darkness and to celebrate the light. Tragedies put our communities to the test. In most cases, the Habit of Community saves its loved ones from fear and leads them to healing.
I pray that my classroom community will not be tested by tragedy, but everyday there are failures to be reassured and successes to be celebrated. We have a responsibility to encourage a sense of community so that our students feel safe to be who they are. They learn empathy and generosity by our modeling.
True Community encourages everyone to clarify their own values without having to agree with the group. There are few experiences that bring more energy to the soul than belonging to a durable Community without the pressure of having to agree. –Ed Bacon
One thing that stands out to me about the Habit of Community is that we have to open up ourselves to vulnerability in order for others to connect to us. Recently, a friend’s son had his first child. The baby was born early and had some difficulties. He posted daily on Facebook about the progress of his son and his wife’s recovery. I found myself looking for his updates every day, and I know that the support of all of us reading them helped him get through this difficult time. They are all home now and becoming the family they were meant to be. Somehow, though, I feel blessed from having shared in this journey.
We now have so many more ways to connect with our wider community. If we can use the social media to spread the Habits of Love rather than fear, to encourage the life-light in each person, to be there for each other, we can spread the energy of peace and health to the world. We can inspire change. We can be a community.
I want to take this opportunity to thank the community of Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Tuesdays. We are all teachers together on a journey to provide the best for our students. We are a supportive, encouraging, and loving community, and I am proud to be a part.
In what ways will you build community in your classroom? A community of belonging, a community of trust, a community of learning?
Reflections on the Teche 
wow…we were on the same wavelength with our posts today…I love this…. saves its loved ones from fear and leads them to healing….that has been my story this summer. Thank you for this piece of writing. …I will share it. xo
“We have a responsibility to encourage a sense of community so that our students feel safe to be who they are.”
I wish you have been my teacher.
My teacher made fun of my writing in front of the class. It took me years to share what I wrote.
I wish you all the best in this year of teaching.
xo
Pamela
Hard to believe you have come so far to overcome the ridicule. I can’t imagine doing that to one of my students. Your writing has a place in this world. I really think we should be friends:)
Powerful thoughts today, Margaret. Community delivers such strength when one thinks they don’t have the will to continue. May all students be a part of a nurturing community every year.
Really loved these lines:
We have a responsibility to encourage a sense of community so that our students feel safe to be who they are. They learn empathy and generosity by our modeling.
Thank you for sharing them today, Margaret.
Always stimulating entries on your blog, Margaret!
Having done considerable graduate work on the 17th century, I can tell you that “No man is an island, entire of itself” is a portion of a sentence from Donne’s prose work, DEVOTIONS UPON EMERGENT OCCASIONS, which he composed when he thought he was dying. It is NOT an “epigraph,” although I am sure many writers have appended it to their own work in that capacity. The whole sentence reads: “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”
As I finish up some syllabi this week, I will be thinking more about “community” after reading your blog this morning. Thanks!
Have a wonderful school year,
Jack Ferstel
Ed Bacon used the complete John Donne quote as an epigraph to the chapter on Community. I shortened even more for my purposes. I guess it’s much like taking quotes out of the Bible without having the full context. Still, a great quote, though. Thanks for reading and for leaving a comment. Means so much.
You are gracious and kind always Margaret, and I’m so glad you’ve become a part of this community too! It’s the first, maybe the most important part of ‘building’ a classroom, to be safe, to belong. Gosh, so many things that I did, that my colleagues do. I think making sure laughter happens a lot & that we all share in it is a beginning important part. If we can be very, very goofy together, we’ve come a long way to becoming a group! Thanks for these good words!
Here’s a book to read, to balance those seven habits of highly effective people! I want my greatest effect in the classroom to be LOVE -> COMMUNITY. Great reminder for the start of the year!
And I forgot to say–we do it first by singing!
Margaret, all of your posts reflecting on this book have been so inspiring, and this one is no different. We are indeed all in this together, and community does “help us through the darkness and to celebrate the light.” I feel so lucky to be part of the growing community of educators who share their experiences on blogs and Twitter, particularly the amazing Slice of Life community. Thank you so much for sharing!
Catherine
This is so appropriate for me; I was in a classroom management workshop all day today. Your blog post fits very well with all the things that I learned today. By the way, I totally agree with Catherine, all the posts of this book have been inspirational.
What a wonderful post 🙂 I think that’s what I care about the most: Community! In my teacher PD work community comes first and teachers are still surprised by the experience. I just turned down an opportunity to work on a student teacher course because it will not include enough community. Yes, we are all in this together! So simple and so hard to come by unless we as teachers model and birth the process.
Bravo!
Bonnie