Welcome to the
Great Conversation
Forget community involvement. Instead, educators
should focus on building community support.
—Abraham Lincoln
© RobeRt NeubeckeR/the ispot
Jamie Vollmer
Public sentiment is everything.
With public sentiment, nothing
can fail; without it, nothing can
succeed.
Ibelieve in strength- ening the relationship between the public and public schools to increase student
success; I’m skeptical,
however, about increasing
community involvement in
our schools.
Community involvement
is a laudable goal, and I
respect those who devote
their professional lives to
the cause. My experiences
in community involvement
campaigns, however, have
convinced me that the effort
is all but futile. Few districts
have the time, the resources,
or even the inclination to
conduct a comprehensive
community involvement
campaign. Most teachers
and administrators are
already up to their eyeballs
in work, and, truth be told,
many have zero interest in
involving the public.