Quote Brainstorm Exercise
Read the following quotes and produce a bulleted list of ideas to foster
family and community involvement through your curriculum and course
activities. Record those ideas on the Classroom Practices worksheet of
your Reflective Journal. You will use this list in the Lesson 6 assignment.
"A school can increase the economic security of its community by
encouraging local and national businesses to set up branches within
the school, by teaching entrepreneurialism, by establishing small
student-run ventures, and by offering local and state incentives to
attract business partnerships" (Collins, 2001, p. 17).
"The curriculum can enhance students' skills by building awareness,
understanding, and appreciation of their area. It also can help
students understand the place of their community in the larger world"
(Collins, 2001, p. 19).
"Professional educators do not always recognize that communities are
complex social arrangements of families, friends, neighborhoods and
associations, clubs, civic groups, local enterprises, churches, temples,
ethnic associations, unions, local government, and local
media....Within such communities are ... natural helpers who can act
as a liaison and a bridge between schools and families in the
community....[Natural helpers] have a greater stake in the well-being
and future of the community than professionals who work in the
community but do not reside there....Consequently, these
professionals need to seek the help of the natural helpers, who are key
informants about the operations of social systems within the
community” (Flaxman, 2001, p. 12).
“...the real challenge is to educate a new generation to shoulder the
awesome responsibilities of running the world. And the interim
challenge is to ‘restructure’ the schools to offer such an education. But
schools cannot meet either of those challenges with first doing a better
job of connecting with parents and the public.’”
Ron Brandt & Erik Robelen in Listen First, Engaging Parents and the
Community in Schools. ASCD Educational Leadership, May 1998, vol.
55, pp 25-30.
PSLC Human Growth & Development
Lesson 6 – Quote Exercise