Schools Need a Community

Schools need a community to flourish—educators and students alike.

When I wrote about the myth of the superhuman teacher in media and its harm, a neglected point was that everyone suffers from such beliefs. Teachers suffer because they are not superheroes—they are imperfect humans. Students (and their families, the communities) suffer because they are not getting what they need to learn and thrive.

The entire community and country suffers from citizens who have fallen through multiple cracks.

Teachers might say that they can do it all or authentically feel that they can. I floundered for years, trying to complete every task expected of me. As an experienced teacher, I see new teachers crumble under expectations from themselves and others.

Educators need an understanding and a support system outside a school’s walls. (We also need realistic expectations inside the school walls.)

Intuitively, Americans know this. Look at the crowds of a popular team’s football game or a well-funded arts program display. We know that young people need visible support as well as practice, engagement, encouragement, money, and behavior modeling.

Schools need a community where adults rally around the educational system and support students as they travel through it. To start—

Everyone supports the learner.

Caregivers and communities can show up—but we need those hidden, less visible acts of support too:

• Books in the home.

• Value on education, specifically in casual conversation.

• Donations to schools.

• Support with taxes through voting and political involvement.

• Support in updating archaic systems that don’t allow students to do well in school.

The more we Americans work through 2025, the more we can see evident that communities matter. Indeed, no one learns in a vacuum and increased learning ties to better health outcomes.

School has changed.

My senior year of high school, we got the Internet. My English teachers mandated that we handwrite rough drafts. We printed our research.

My sophomore year was the first year my school taught typing via computers instead of typewriters.

You probably have similar stories.

In our heads, we can acknowledge some of the change. The pushback to a mythical time is pushed, though. School, like the rest of the world, has changed.

Science and psychology has changed how educators treat students. Expectations and laws regarding testing, guidelines, and timing exist with lots of privacy for students. And on.

Communities should acknowledge in conversations that of course schools have changed.

Teachers know the research.

I am an educator, and I know my lane. Teachers know best practice; for example, we. . .

• Understand the research that supports an inclusive classroom.

• Know the statistics on LGBTQ suicide and health outcomes.

• See the benefits of all students seeing themselves in literature, especially with a robust classroom library.

• Use proper terminology (like “genocide”) and know that in preparation for students’ next steps, they must be ready to deal with a diverse world.

Even with community members willing to state that the world has changed, that school has changed, educators deal with backlash from communities when they advocate for all students.

The community can help.

A community that supports education will support all learners, acknowledge that the school has and will continue to change, and believe that teachers are trained professionals.

Sometimes, I write and feel hopeful—doesn’t everyone want all of our American youth to be educated?

Other times, I write and despair. I have been directly told that not everyone wants an educated America. And? Some people don’t celebrate the difficulties, mistakes, heartache, setback, and messiness connected to learning. Education is not a straightforward path with omniscient leaders.

As I consider what a school needs from its community, I believe that educators need a community’s grace.