Community and Schools

Recognizing the wide-spread need for community today, Merz and Furman consider its importance for schools, how reforms attempt to create community in schools, how other reforms attempt to build relationships between schools and external communities, and finally how schools might be more successful in building and maintaining strong personal relationships. The authors use classical sociological writings, as well as modern communitarian and feminist thought to develop a theory of community. They examine what kinds of communities are possible today, and which naive notions are apt to lead to nostalgia and failure. They point out that many current attempts at community building are counterproductive and lead to greater isolation and impersonal bureaucracy. They reveal many paradoxes in the current reform movement, particularly attempts at "systemic reform" which can have many unintended and frustrating consequences. Finally, based on their theory and an examination of a number of real schools, Merz and Furman give concrete suggestions for better school communities.