How would our communities begin to look different (in particular, our school community), if “...everyone–staff, students, and teachers–[chose] everyday to offer, thank, encourage, inspire, and let others know you notice and believe in them.”? In this day and age it is becoming increasingly more ‘trendy’, to remove oneself from their community environments, and practice a self-centered, self-providing life style. With this shift from community based societies to individualistic centered societies, people in general have begun to feel less ‘seen’. We can sometimes find ourselves going through our day without having really engaged anyone in a conversation. As a teenager, this type of mentality is very easy to fall into. Me teenagers feel that they must keep up a certain independent, confident and selfish exterior in order to avoid being hurt and in order to better fit into the society they are slowly becoming integrated in. Quite frankly, this is why so many struggle in high school-- this period of time is where one needs to feel as if they are ‘seen’ by parents, teacher and peers, however ironically, this is often the time where it seems they get the least of this. Our divergence from the community based society has left us in a world full of people seeking approval and attention from a world that will not give it to them.
Koinonia is the ancient Greek word meaning “... communion, joint participation; the share which one has in anything, participation, a gift jointly contributed, a collection, a contribution, etc. It identifies the idealized state of fellowship and unity that should exist...”1 . In larger (and often times more so in public schools), students feel neglected, unwanted, unbelonging and unconnected to everyone or anyone else. If students and teachers began to practice the habit of “...thank[ing], encourage[ing], inspire[ing], and let[ing] others know [they] notice and believe in them.”, those feelings would begin to disappear. If students and teachers were able to do this, a sense of ‘community’ or ‘family’ would be added to the school environment. This shift in the ‘school culture’ could positively alter behavior, depression rates, academics, social relations and the way students interact with others outside of the student body. By choosing to ‘see’ others, we are able to open up opportunities for others to in turn ‘see’ those around them, and little by little we can begin to incorporate koinonia back into our society.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/angela-maiers/people-know-they-matter-w_b_3348144.html?view=print&comm_ref=false
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