Summers-Knoll School has had a long-standing partnership with the Leslie Science and Nature Center and Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum (AAHOM). On Monday of this week, the whole school had the AAHOM to themselves, a signature SK field trip tradition that remains to due SK’s partnership with these local nonprofit organizations.
In a 2019 article, Schools Cannot Do it Alone: A Community-Based Approach to Refugee Youth’s Language Development, my co-author and I wrote about the importance of community organizations in the education of refugee-background youth. Schools are tasked with one of the most essential jobs in our society: educating children and youth. Yet somehow, there is a pervasive notion that schools – in addition to parents, of course – are supposed to singlehandedly provide everything a child needs in their education. There is ample evidence that schools cannot, and should not, do this work alone.
While the context of our article is specific to schools and community organizations who work with refugee-background youth, the importance of partnerships spans all environments, contexts and industries. Who or what can truly grow and expand without partnership? From mushrooms to human beings, we are not meant to do this thing called life alone.
A couple of weeks ago, the 1st and 2nd graders at SK presented on their Fungi and Rocks project, and many of the students spoke about the mutually beneficial relationship among fungi and trees. Trees provide a place for mushrooms to grow, and mushrooms’ mycelium help trees’ roots absorb moisture and nutrients from the soil – they feed off of and fuel one another; this symbiotic relationship is a key part in the survival of an entire ecosystem. If one part breaks down, the rest of it will do so eventually as well.
So what makes organizational partnerships thrive? Trust. Reciprocity. Open, honest, consistent communication. Accountability. Recognizing one another’s inherent dignity and worth. Valuing varied forms of knowledge and ways of being. Finding the places of overlap as well as the spaces between one boundary and another to create something truly new that wouldn’t exist without the partnership. In the natural world, at the threshold where one ecosystem meets another, a new and unique ecosystem emerges. I wrote a poem about this phenomenon once:
Sloughs
In the spaces between, possibilities are born.
A slough – where one ecosystem meets another
fresh water meets
saltwater
saltwater meets
fresh water
unique life forms–
Salt Grass, Pickleweed, Leopard Sharks, Loons–
thrive on hybridity
in this migratory destination
a third space.
Between sleeping and waking,
we can play in a liminal space
safely explore new insights,
dream a new reality into being.
In gratitude to the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum and the Leslie Nature and Science Center, on behalf of the SK community, thank you for your partnership!