“I believe that in all men's lives at certain periods, and in many men's lives at all periods between infancy and extreme old age, one of the most dominant elements is the desire to be inside the local ring and the terror of being left outside.” --C.S. Lewis

Last week I was lucky enough to attend the Homecoming pep assembly at my high school and then, the next day, attend University of Michigan’s homecoming.  Both events contained the same elements: teens dancing and screaming to deafening music played in the hopes of spurring the home football team on to a victory.  They were both loud and smelly, intense and bizarre.  I went into one of my weird dualistic observation modes and realized as I watched both events--our pep assembly and the UM football game--that these young adults were willing to sacrifice pretty much anything in order to fit into the “local ring” they perceived.  Friday night was freezing, but the high school boys were still shirtless with their chests painted to represent their class.  At the UM game on Saturday, the cold drizzle soaked every student who stayed despite the whupping the Wolverines were giving the Fighting Illini.  Nothing could separate these fans from the love they were giving their respective schools. 

Watching these frenzied displays of school spirit, I was struck again by the power of the group.  All the people at both events were gathered because they all felt a draw, a kinship to the greater goal of the group.  In these two particular cases, the goal was to win a football game and celebrate a specific school.  But the power of the group is not simply one of teams or schools or even a common goal.  The power of the local ring, as C.S. Lewis calls it,  rests in humanity’s basic need to belong.  We need a place where we can find community and solidarity.  We long for others who share our ideals, our jokes, our desires, our goals. To be in not out, to be with not solo, to be joined not isolated is one of our most basic needs.  People need people.  It really is that simple.

So once again I turn to school.  We are becoming more isolated as we inundate ourselves with technology.  Yes, social networks allow people to communicate with everyone all over the world, but I question the authenticity of that communication.  With Facebook or Twitter or Posterous or Google+ or any other social medium, we are allowed to avoid much of the mess of interpersonal communication.  When we communicate via the computer, we communicate in a sterile environment.  A computer screen buffers our real selves from the selves we present to the world.  This constructed reality presents some major problems for education.  

Our students flourish when they create authentic, organic relationships with others.  Programs like Link Crew prove that.  Unfortunately, there is no app for chatting over coffee.   And while I do admire the commercial that shows a young tuba player performing his recital to his father’s face held up on an iPad, I question where all of this is taking us.  Where is the app that allows kids to sit down, face-to-face--with all the sensory overload of a deep conversation--and experience interpersonal exchange?  I am not pushing against change; I am questioning the logistics of the change.  Humanity has needed community since antiquity--we are programed for it.  As we reprogram how we teach, we need to keep the interpersonal at the forefront.