Community through the eyes of a 2nd grader

The primary focus of my blog is to provide offline examples of community that provide, in my opinion, excellent examples or anecdotes to consider when creating an online community or social network. I began my day, today, touring a neighborhood school for my boy Zack whom will be entering kindergarten next year. Though it's an important personal task, I don't typically consider it work related (although the entire process really is about community since everyone is experiencing the same process, anxiety, decision making, interactions, etc.). Today, however, it was much more tangible.

Similar to the first tour that I had taken at a different private school (the school's strategic themes are globalization, sustainability and technology - pretty impressive, or daunting, for k through 8) this school also emphasized the importance of community. As the tour progressed, we checked out the interactions among students and between students and teachers and student and parents. The sense of community was absolutely apparent though posters and messages hanging on the walls. Most impressive and most relevant were the ways in which the 2nd grade class defines what is important to them in their classroom and in their environment . As you see below they have defined the most important

criteria of their environment. They have also defined their "privacy circle". Both of these conversations are important to have when defining the criteria and goals of an online community.

They also have a very impressive approach to helping each other foster community throughout the school. They create mini-communities or groups which they call a Grove. A Grove consists on 9 kids, 1 kid from each grade, k through 8. These Groves meet every couple of weeks to mentor, share, help, learn and develop friendships across grades. What a fabulous idea - gathering all stakeholders and discussing how they can create a stronger and more valuable community - I love it!

I learned quite a bit during the 60 minutes that I spent with a bunch of little kids - and enjoyed every minute of it. This is a great reminder of keeping eyes wide open. Turn off the Blackberry and listen to your little kids. It turns out that they're pretty smart.