All I ever need to know I learned from community education
All I ever need to know I learned from community education.
This bold statement is based on one afternoon’s reflection, as I stared out my office window at the bay of Corpus Christi.
Recently I changed jobs, from working for a school district to a non-profit. I had spent the morning looking at the piles of papers amassing on my desk. I had separated them by the coordinating activity, into several stacks. There was one for my quarterly report, one for the monthly report, another for a new program I was to implement, a stack for a current grant I was working on to establish a community center, and of course the dreaded fund raiser I had been assigned, because as the new guy, I had no idea what I was getting into.
Reflection had started after someone asked me how I could possibly manage to accomplish everything that was expected of me and why I took on more activities. I had no answer. I began to ponder. How was I going to do it? Then I went back to the basics that I had learned through community education:
1. If you don’t know, ask. Our peers are the greatest resources. I have yet to meet anyone in community education who did not want to share ideas or was not willing to reach out and assist someone else in being successful.
2. Try it. If it doesn’t work, so what, you learned something. The worst thing that can happen is that you look for a new way to be successful and to serve your community.
3. Plan for every contingency, and know that something will always go wrong. Despite covering every angel, you can not control the weather or other people. So when something doesn’t work the way you planned, most people won’t know and won’t care. They will be too busy having fun and there is no need to tell the differently.
Fortified by this knowledge, I started diving into my piles. I knew that if I could create a successful evening for parents and kids, with little more then pipe cleaners, glue and felt scraps, I could do anything.
The community educator is the greatest resource in our communities. I make this bold statement with true sincerity. If not for the opportunities we provide, who will teach that senior how to use e-mail and stay in touch with a changing world; who will create a safe and nurturing environment for youth, during out of school hours; who will educate the disenfranchised who have difficulty in reading and writing; who will give the unemployed a boost by helping them learn new skills; who will create an environment, where someone can meet and make new friends, rather then spending another night sitting alone?
We keep people connected and we keep them relevant. That is why I am now looking at a clean desk and am about to go home for the night, knowing that as a community educator, I can do anything.
Bill Hoelscher, TCEA President