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Show I wmiiii ni'M'Mr yiFir.t n. , upmili,,,,, )f)wj sjuiy : f ' i ' ' - - i - ' " - - : . s 1 ; . V. 1 ' h . 4 i : .p ., . ,': ; ' ... ' ;- ! I ' .J I ' ' " ! , i , i , L ; I SKlfcf - v ..... . , i , ... g ;. ' r " l I I I s I t : : I '. ...:. - i :- 4 : Y. ' ' 5 i ' ' , CARIN NELSON helps young Becky Goodlove over the parallel bars during a workout session, at the community school classes held in the Ver- nal Jr. High School. Carin is a bar instructor with the school and Becky is a student. j Community Education Week E i seeks involvement in programs .1 . Community Education Week in Utah is March 8-14. If you hayenever heard- & community education or are not quite sure exactly what is is or what it means, this would be a great op- k: portunity for you to find out. Get in- t volved in your community ! We encourage everyone to come to an ' open house at Vernal Junior High on Thursday, March 12, at 7 p.m. in the K school library. Two films on community com-munity education will be shown, "To Touch a Child" and "A Sense of Community." Refreshments will be served and Mary Contreras, com-)i. com-)i. munity school director will be available . to answer any questions. K f What is community education? It bj may be easier to describe first what it la is not, for it is a concept with unlimited potential. () First and foremost, community t- education is not merely a program. Whenever community education is iff "wntioned, most people refer to the J,!1 Programs. Some members of the j community feel there is competition for students or that community educaton ",, B trying to "take over" their functions, jj. This is the greatest misunderstanding and must be overcome. Community education must be understood as a process. ' ' ' There is a definition of community education by Minzey and LeTarte: '.'...a philosophical concept which serves the entire community by providing for all the educational needs of its community members. He uses the local school to serve as a catalyst for bringing community resources together to solve community problems, in an effort to develop a positive sense of community, and to improve community com-munity living..." The ultimate goal of community education is to develop a process by which members of a community learn to work together to identify problems and seek out solutions to these problems. The programs the public often hears about are the solutions to the problems. Take for example, a community with a high vandalism rate. Through identification iden-tification of the problem, community members may find one solution to be offering the youth of the community some kind of activity in the evenings so they would develop an appreciation for public facilities instead of wanting to ..destroy them.. , These are the kinds of things which community education is designed for and can deal with on an effective basis. Community education first came to Vernal in 1969 when Phil Ellis heard about the concept. With the addition of a grant from the Mott Foundation, the pilot program began. The Mott Foundation is an organization which began the concept of community education in Flint, Mich., during the 1930's. The opened up public schools after school hours and expanded the traditional role of educating children and youth to one of commitment to serving the entire community. In the years following 1969, when Vernal first experienced community education, all the programs have grown tremendously. "I feel we have done a good job of programming, but the key element is still missing. That element called process. We need to give community education back to the people for they are the ones the concept is built on. They are the ones who can keep it going in the right direction-moving direction-moving from program based onward and upward to process based," stated Mary Contreras. i 1. i i " ( ' MICHELLE MORRIS completes com-pletes her practice routine with a poised exit from the -balance beam. 1 I ' I I J" " - - ' ' i 1 - - - si , i " . i . - . ' I MARY CONTRERAS, program director for the community school at the Vernal Jr. High School. |