The Importance of Instilling a Sense of Community in Students
As biologically independent life forms, the need to pursue individual tangents of growth comes naturally to every human being by virtue of natural law. Studies have celebrated in recent times the species centric virtue of being able to operate efficiently as communities, exclusively within the human realm. Scholars have gone as far as to reiterate the need to assert the community value as a way to achieve evolutionary pinnacles and subsequently, human oneness has become a deeply significant undertone of millennial thought.
The internet boom has been blurring borders and it is therefore safe to say that today’s individuals are by default global citizens. Children today are most likely to be transported to an entirely new world that is drenched in advancements that brings international competences down to one plane and all the same, the cultural identity in each individual continues to be associated with a child’s immediate realities.
The formative years play a pivotal role in the holistic learning that a young mind is adept at encompassing. To instill a sense of community at school is the most fertile route one can take to invoke in a child, a sense of being culturally rooted; a distinct sense of cultural identity as the self is represented in a global mosaic. Here are some of the long term benefits of enabling a child to cultivate a collective consciousness.
Benefits of Instilling a Sense of Community in Students at the School Level –
- A Sense of Belonging –
Being a part of a large group can be beautiful and workplaces today are a culmination of various individual voices with niche skill sets that come together to achieve a common organizational goal. While at work, work is worship but as adults, one knows the significance of the many parts of the self that play together to become whole parcels with plural thought trails altering each one’s ability to perform efficiently.
When one feels a sense of belonging, one is assured in oneself since it is telling of where one heads back after a long work day. A family, a community, a collective consciousness that makes room for oneself to celebrate festival rituals and hold one during one’s grievances, and a sense of rootedness facilitate the sense of security that helps one give their all. - Enable Healthy Interactions within Mixed Groups –
Being aware of navigating within one’s own community allows one to understand the ways in which one can successfully accept similarities and dissimilarities alike; a trait that can enable one to simulate the same when one is amidst a new and a mixed group of people as an adult. To make the most of the opportunity to work within a mixed group involves availing the ability and the chance to get to know new people and engage in healthy interactions; a possibility that is exercised when children are allowed to learn the ways of coexisting within their own group. - Relying on One Another is a Part of the Human Experience –
To ask for help has been noted to be a difficult experience for most individuals and the same may be instilled unfortunately, in more people than not. As adults especially, the ability to ask for help and to rely on one another in today’s nuclear reality may be seen as an unfortunate marker of shame. However, historically proven is the matter of united we stand; a truth that has been vindicated by examples that we cannot ignore. To instill a sense of community makes room for seamless reliance between individuals as part of sharing both highs and lows of the human journey thus facilitating the possibility of removing the misfortune that has come around. - Holistic Experiences and Growth –
Interacting with versatile and varied individual realities allows one to experience a plethora of skills, possibilities of interests, and perspectives. The exposure to multiplicities and plentitudes makes room therefore, for individuals to explore curiosities and ideas that lay beyond one’s purview when they are reeling within their own worlds. - Encouragement of Empathy –
Being able to recognise the human being in a circumstance or a situation which is starkly different from one’s own spectrum of familiarity leads to understanding that one responds to life differently than oneself based on differences in the circumstance and in the self. Exposure to the versatility of life and people’s realities helps children cultivate empathy and therefore, the ability to understand and reach out to others when they may be in need. - Significance of Safety and Shock Value –
When children learn to feel safe, they learn to attach importance to the sense of safety that makes them experience shock value when human beings experience painful realities. When deviant realities cause harm to individuals in a community and the community reacts with shock, there is room for protest and therefore, change towards harmony. - Knowledge About Cultural Roots –
Children who are involved within their communities are susceptible to feeling belonged and therefore curious about their ethnological histories and roots. At home, while at school, and as they mingle with peers; children who learn about their cultural roots are bound to feel closer to their identities and their immediate realities to thus be further closely knit with their own communities and confidences.
Children learn quicker than adults do and when children are taught to embrace community values, they learn to be assured about where they come from and thus represent themselves with more confidence.
