Contribution + Communication

     The first word that came to my head was sharing. Although it made sense I still didn’t like it. I felt there was another word that could say what I meant more accurately.  The word was contribution, which thankfully another group in the class had said.  Without contribution there is only our thoughts. What good is any thought to anyone if it isn’t shared? As I re-read the material it’s painfully obvious that what I’m reading is this author’s contribution. And in the first chapter what the author talks about are his mentor’s contributions to him. So there an idea is conceptualized and then brought out as a new idea and then written in a book so that others may find it, read it, and learn it.
     In Block’s book he talks about McKnight’s ideas of gifts. The very nature of a gift is something you have to give to others and receive as well. In the context of community, gifts come as forms of “assets, resources, and talents.” (Pg. 13) These three things are what people can bring to a community to promote transformation. Of course this brings into play another word: communication. I judge dramatic changes in Earth’s history based on how fast and the quantity of information travels. Starting with ancient runners, where a message was given to a person to literally carry the message as fast as he could from the source to recipient. Using birds to travel distances further and faster. The printing press mass-produced ideas to make them more available and could be carried by horses or trains. Phones and the Internet boosted the speed that information travels and made the amount that could travel be almost infinite. I feel that the more information there is, and the more people share it, the better chance there is for some innovation to come along to completely change the way we live.
     Contributions to a community are shared through communication, bringing about transformations to the way people in that community live. What music has to contribute to a community is more of a personal transformation, different for every individual. In Higgins’ article, 'Acts of hospitality: the community in Community Music,' the transformations his music groups caused were very empowering to the members involved. I believe music enriches life and to participate in it even more so.
     In Higgins’ secondary praxis class, we participate in improvisation using instruments. Each of us contributes to the music the group is making and we communicate without saying anything. It’s a very rewarding experience and is a great thing to share with people. A lot can be taken out of what I’m learning in that class to translate into community with a focus on music.
     In a learning setting, anytime anyone communicates any idea they are contributing to the learning experience. This promotes learning for the entire class and pushes action forward for others to take the ideas, grasp them, and then come up with new ideas to contribute. As a teacher, it is important not to be the only contributor, but to share that role with all students. Not only does this give students a chance to form their own ideas and share them, but can also give the instructor a sense of where in the learning process the students are at and encourage accordingly in the right directions.