Module 1 Reflection Questions

Reflection Questions:
Each person has several horizontal and vertical pulls.
Horizontal Relationship — The association of one individual to another individual within the same locality such as a neighborhood or a city.
Vertical Relationship — The association of an individual to another individual or to a group based primarily on membership affiliation. This affiliation often includes membership outside the locality setting.
List several that affect you.

My horizontal pulls:
- children, husband, family, and friends
My vertical pulls:
- Tribal Council, Grad studies, Book Club, Friends for Life, Baseball Executive, Music Festival Executive, coaching, and colleagues

How have some of the pulls affected you as a community member in terms of loyalty, time constraints, and citizen involvement?

I consider myself to be extremely involved as a citizen in my community. I am a hockey mom and a baseball coach. I fill whatever position necessary to ensure my children have opportunities available to them such as sitting on parent executives for Baseball and on Music Festival Organizing Committees. There are a small group of us in the community who feel like we are doing it all. Burnout is a growing reality. So much time is spent volunteering for community activities that there is little time left for family and self. That being said, I often wish I could do more.

What “tensions” or discrepancies are there between your beliefs and values of community education and practice regarding the relationship between home, school and community? How did these tensions arise?

"It takes a community to raise a child." Should it not too then take a community to teach a child? There are so many community members with so much to share and it seems that those resources are not being tapped.

What tensions are there between your beliefs and values and practice regarding your role in the relationship between home, school and community? How did this tension arise?

As a skilled and knowledgeable parent I want to contribute to the school and community in a meaningful way. I believe that I have a great deal to offer the school, and through the school, the community in general. The tension arises when there is seemingly no interest in involvement from outside the school. The schools do not seem interested in outsider's ideas. They way they do things is working just fine - why fix something that isn't broken? Parents are welcome to be involved in the school as long as it is to cook hotdogs and attend field trips.