It is apparent that many people, particularly those in our cities, feel at best disenfranchised at worst hopeless. Where is the support network? Where is the sense of neighbourliness – of one’s own community looking out for one? Where is the real sense of respect for each other and ones elders? I don’t mean the version of respect spouted by the knife welding youths that were responsible for the tragic murder of Ben Kinsella but it does beg the question where were the real values that would have perhaps precluded any such inclination to kill in the tragically misguided view that that it was appropriate to kill in revenge for a perceived slight?

Today, communication, particularly amongst our youth and to some extent men in our society is driven by technology. How much of our direct interaction with friends, family, colleagues or neighbours is by mobile phones (call & texts) and computer (social networking sites, chat rooms, email)? How do most of us receive information these days? Again, thorough technology: the Internet, television, radio.

Perhaps no more than a hundred years ago the heart of any community was centred on a triangle of Church, school and pub. A broad generalisation but mother’s would meet at the school gates in the morning and afternoon to exchange views, information and learn of who needed support. Men would go out to work and come home to the family and perhaps once or twice a week go to the pub again to hear the news of the town or community. An every Sunday, the great majority of the community (or certainly a greater percentage than today) would go to Church to hear the Gospel but also to meet and talk. Now this article is certainly not suggesting return to such gender specific generalisations but it does illustrate where things have changed in many ways for the worse.

In many ways, the school has been at the heart of the community perhaps more than the Church and certainly the pub. In many instances, when a community could not afford to build a Church, it was the school that became the place of worship. It represented a very public place and a seat of learning and collective worship for Children during the week and for the family on a Sunday. There is a very real sense that this anchor of our communities is being eroded and in some cases lost completely.

In a recent speech to the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales Jim Knight, Labour MP and Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform said “Schools [are] at the heart of their communities. Accessible to children, families and the wider locality. With a real ethos and spirit of community. The life force of a good school should flow from that vital combination of the nurture of its individual pupils, and promoting cohesion by acting as a resource for the wider community. That is more important today than I think it’s ever been”.

So what needs to change to ensure the erosion is reversed or those schools that are being successful are supported? Perhaps it comes back to respect, its true meaning. Respect for teachers first and foremost. Many teachers have seen their authority eroded over the years. If schools are to become the core of our communities once again, respect for the professionals educating our children is essential. Codes of conduct need to be reinforced not just for pupils but also for parents. Too often we hear of teachers fearful of verbal as well as physical abuse from pupils and parents.

This goes hand in hand with moral values. The values and ethos found within Christian schools is not a guarantee against the lack of respect and abuse we see daily but it does provide a set of values that all those associated with the schools must sign up to. To be a teacher in any school, not just a Christian schools, is tough enough but if schools are to return to the heart of their communities, providing community activities for all during and after school time, then teachers need to feel that they are respected and valued. Without that fundamental respect schools and communities will not function and without functioning communities where everyone has a place to go where they themselves are valued and can share problems, concerns, fun, news; in a word, communion, then we will continue to see lonely disenfranchised, frightened people for whom the only sense of community they have is a gang or a group on a social network site and where disrespect is a way of life.