The article spoke about how there needs to be a collaboration between the students, parents, community members, and educators in order to improve the quality of education for all students. Revitalizing learning will ignite a creative compassion in our communities. Teachers who have knowledge of the communities they are teaching in can help not only themselves in the learning experience but the students most of all, which makes it more culturally relevant. If it was an environment more student centered and less subjective, it would be beneficial for the students. This type of recreation can lead to possibly making connections to the social conditions students live in. Another topic I learned about that connects to this portion of the reading is being a social justice-orientated citizen. These kinds of citizens are those who recognize the bad conditions within the community and society and make an effort to challenge it, hold people in power accountable, and try to find solutions. If the community members and the school are interconnected, there could be great changes within the community. Students are not always taught to be critical thinkers who discuss controversial topics and connect with the community they serve, but they are led to do charities or food drives for example, that are surrounded with incentives for doing community work. 

The last point I want to make is that teachers also need to understand racialized students in that being nice to them is not enough, but it is vital to see the challenges they encounter such as racism and the institutional barriers that prevent them from succeeding. It is key to not only recognize this, but to create a pedagogy that allows students to make connections to their community and their social status. 

In some of my courses we discussed lack of funding in schools and how that can impact a student’s education. When trying to create a literacy rich environment and include books that represent different cultures and speak on different topics, it may be challenging to incorporate such books due to funds. Carl E James looks at the “great divide” in the funding to which schools in the GTA have access based on the income level of the neighbourhoods in which they are located. Schools that are in impoverish areas generally receive income from school-generated funds such as fundraisers held by school parent councils or book fairs. Schools in the jane and finch area are unlikely to have the funding base that would enable them to obtain educational resources. They are at a disadvantage. 

Another topic we looked at in my theories class was teachers being involved with the community and or neighbourhood they teach in. We asked the question is it their responsibility to education themselves on what is going around them? how can the community play a part in their teachings? James says that “it is those teachers who encourage students to be active participants in their learning, as opposed to passive recipients of information who will make the educational process meaningful and productive for students”. (p.126). I personally think it is important to be aware of the students you are teaching and where they come from. Samuel shared his feelings about his community neighbourhood through speech writing, he talked about the negative perceptions and assumptions teachers and other students may have about specific communities and how that make a student feel helpless. Teacher must recall that a student’s life, their experiences, aspirations, their beliefs are mediated by the communities in which they live in. Teachers’ knowledge of the community and their students is key to building a healthy relationship with them and is upmost an essential component of teaching 

“The idea of schooling in low-income, disadvantaged neighbourhoods should not be merely about preparing students to “get out” of the neighbourhood”. As I was reading this sentence it took me back to my middle school days where I was told that the schools in our neighbourhood are not the greatest and that where you are going is better. Had we had a “strong school-community relationship” where they could create innovative solutions to help impoverish schools maybe I could have gone to school with my friends in the area and experienced the schooling system in my community.