We all are in dire need of spaces that nurture human relationships and promote cooperative behavior among citizens. And this begins right at home, schools, clubs, and workplaces.
Insects may not impact our lives much, but they undoubtedly have a lot to teach us. Honeybees, for example, function as a whole to ensure the smooth functioning of the entire colony, a form of democracy, where each type of honeybee has its own assigned task, and there exists trust and confidence between them when it comes to fulfilling responsibilities.
As humans, we often look at ourselves as individuals rather than the community we make up. A community doesn’t have to be regional or racial. Any group where people have shared beliefs and values forms a community, be it the apartment building you live in or an online community involving people from all parts of the world. When we uplift each other to rise collectively, it ultimately results in growth at the individual level.
Raising our children with insulated thinking and attitudes can jeopardize our strength as a community. The podcast “Nice White Parents” recently talked about a community middle school in Brooklyn. White parents pushed into the school PTA’s priorities out of the blue to implement a French Learning program that will almost certainly be useless to those in the school who need the most support the most, the incumbent minority students. Wealthy white students and their entitled parents essentially took over the school based on an agenda they set.
As a divorced parent, I struggle every day to reinforce how vital community is to my children when all they have ever known is a world of privilege, where after-school activities, private schools are the norm.
I am committed to sparking a change in groups and communities by focusing on opportunities that are not individualistic. My focus is on building a community that results in growth from the inside out.
