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Welcome to Arts and Ideas in the Air, Talk About Tuesday.
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So this is where I talk about some kind of Sudbury related topic.
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Today I'm going to talk about the importance of showing up to the community.
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This is something I have,
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you know, wondered about. What is the importance of
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having an attendance policy that says, "Hey, if you're going to be part of the school, you've got to show up."
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You know, it's one of those things where it's like, "Well, you know, shouldn't everybody want to be out of school and come in?"
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And, you know, so this year has proven that, you know, a lot of people do.
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We don't need to require it for them.
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But for some, you know, giving them that option means they don't actually feel compelled to show up, and so they often don't.
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And it's because it's really hard to show up.
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I guess, you know, like, one thing is, looking from the outside, it's like, why is it hard to show up?
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You just show up and you just, I mean, you can just sit in a chair and do nothing if you want.
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You can take out your device and do whatever you want on it.
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You don't have to interact with people.
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I mean, obviously, if you're in J.C. or school meeting or chore time or whatever, then you might.
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But for the most part, you can just do whatever you feel like, you know.
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And so it doesn't appear externally like it's a really hard thing to do, just show up.
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But as anyone who's ever been to a party knows, going to a party is difficult.
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It is much easier to show up, like, to a classroom or a job where someone's just telling you what to do, you do it.
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You're not really expected to, you know, interact with anyone.
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You don't really even have the option of it.
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It's just somehow much easier just to do it when you have such free form ability, when you're part of a community, when, you know, like you're in this cooperative environment.
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I think it really changes because all of a sudden it's not just you.
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You're with this group.
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You are responsible for them.
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They are responsible for you.
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We naturally, as I think human beings, form webs of connections with those around us.
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That's how we survived.
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And so, you know, I think it's actually quite challenging to just be present in a community of people.
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I think that's really important to really appreciate just how challenging it is.
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And to also think that, you know, something like conventional school, there is still other people and you still talk with them and, you know, but it feels like interacting with individuals.
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It's not like forming a community.
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Obviously, some people's experiences are different, particularly, you know, clubs and those conventional schools where you've chosen to get together with a group of people and, you know, it might be a bit more free form or sports or, you know, there are various things where you kind of form a little sub-community in that community.
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But if you're just like going in there and sitting in a classroom and doing your work and going home, even though you could be surrounded by like 30 people, it could actually feel pretty lonely.
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And at Arts and Ideas, you know, I get the feeling that even the people who aren't interacting that much with others generally don't feel like they are alone.
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Particularly if they're hanging out in rooms where there are other people, they may not be participating very much but they, you know, it's still there.
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And I think that's something that's very interesting and really interesting to think about and just how much of our brain is, you know, working to establish an understanding of the people around us.
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And, you know, forming a caring bond of them.
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I just see it all the time that people who are just kind of seemingly present, there's a familiarity and a comfort that arises for almost all of them with one another.
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Something that didn't happen necessarily in the beginning but over time, even without interacting directly, it just seems to happen.
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I think that's why it's, you know, I think that is why it's hard to show up because your brain is doing all that work, all this energy, all this emotion and understanding and analysis that's all happening and forming, yeah, a story of the entire community.
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So, you know, showing up is hard.
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Why is it important?
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Well, you know, for our school, not only is it important that we have a community that's functioning because that's how we run it but it's really what the learning is all about.
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How do you learn how to be a part of a community?
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Now, when we were evolving, of course, we generally were a part of a community and there wasn't a separation of people from here and there, like, you know, you didn't send the kids off to somewhere else.
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They were just hanging around with, you know, the tribe because that was what it was and, you know, some people did one thing, some people did another thing and I have no idea what the kids were doing.
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They were probably running around doing their own thing, sometimes imitating the adults or whatever, kids do.
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But, of course, here in our modern age, you know, the adults go off to their jobs where you don't have kids and the kids go off to school where you don't have adults except the ones directly taking care of the kids and it's very cut off.
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And so, you know, and, you know, just like even 40, 50 years ago, there was a lot of outside time for kids and a lot of neighbors getting together and I'm sure there are some many still wonderful pockets here and there of that happening.
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But a lot of times driving through a neighborhood on a nice day and you don't see anybody really out and maybe they're out on their own property but not necessarily talking with others, like, there's a dramatic decrease in community as far as I can tell of just the people around you.
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And so that's what our school offers, the ability to be around other people.
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Now, of course, our school is mostly students, kids with just a handful of adults.
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But I think for the most part, what kids just really need are the kids sort of slightly older and slightly younger, that's our age mixing.
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And, you know, sort of by the time you get to the upper teens where the older kids are not actually students anymore, like they're 19, 20, whatever, so they're not actually part of our school, you know, that's when you need something a little bit special.
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Basically, that's why we kind of have a flex time policy so that people can step out in the other world and then kind of bring that back in and, of course, they might be interacting with other adults in other fashions so, you know, I think that happens.
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But fundamentally, yeah, we're providing students with a community, so you need people to show up to have that community and it's hard because every individual is contributing to that community no matter what they're doing.
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And that takes a lot of energy, a lot of mental power, a lot of emotion, emotional strength, and it's really difficult.
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And it's hard for some people to really appreciate just how hard it is, it doesn't look hard, what, you just show up and sit in a chair, how hard can that be?
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It really is what it feels like sometimes.
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And, yeah, it's actually quite difficult, much easier to just, you know, have a teacher proudly on about something, there's something written on the board and you just kind of like change some numbers on your piece of paper of whatever the problem is and just boom, sorry, I'm a math guy so that's what I go to.
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Or, you know, like other classes you might have facts spewed at you and you just kind of regurgitate and throw it back out.
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There isn't like, there isn't like, the task there is to connect with the teacher basically, just one individual, just know what they want to hear, know what they want to see, and you are successful, right?
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It is very much, that's the stance, it is not connect with your fellow students, oh, they like to throw in some group work and maybe that works out, maybe it doesn't, I don't know, whatever.
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At Arts and Ideas, it is all about the broader community, figuring all that out, so that's what makes it so hard and challenging instead of one individual that one is trying to figure out or, you know, maybe like you have four or five different teachers throughout the day depending on your grade level.
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You have instead a community of say 80 people and, you know, obviously you have friend groups that are the most intense part of the community for people but all the other people are still there and it's all part of it and I think the brain is working hard to connect with all of them, so.
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That's why it's important to show up, why it's difficult, what you're getting out of it by coming here, that community, just be there for the community, show up, be yourself, accept others, give the caring, receive the caring, we are a community that cares for one another and that takes effort, it really does.
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And I hope that that's, that was reasonable. Okay. Well, thanks for listening and I'll see you when I see you.