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Sharing with my former roommate the sense of accomplishment I got from two weeks at the Spitz Institute prompted a comparison with the early Google search refinement option "more like this." The key word in that phrase is "like". Different conclusions can be drawn based on what parameters are being used to determine similarity. As a tentative first hypothesis, my positive reaction might have stemmed from the sense of belonging to a group, so in seeking out similarly fulfilling experiences, how well they might promote group solidarity is the relevant criterion. What if my positive reaction were mostly the result of the intellectual challenge of mastering a new set of skills, and the social dimension merely the most convenient setting for that challenge to happen? What if I feel dissatisfied by my Montgomery College job more on account of the scarcity there of intellectually challenging responsibilities, rather than the degree of inclusion my supervisors feel willing to extend to me?
Even granting that the sense of group belonging is what triggered my positive response to the planetarium training, perhaps my psyche was fooled (by the time-limited nature of the trip, and hence the diminished chances of disconfirming events spoiling an optimistic first impression) into accepting a simulacrum of community for the real thing? Here I draw on the distinction made by John Taylor Gatto between a "community" and a "network". Most of our social engagements these days take place in the context of a "network". A network asks of us only a small part of ourselves and has no mechanism for acknowledging, let alone rewarding, those other parts of ourselves that we carry with us. For example, on the ultimate Frisbee field, my presence is valued only to the extent that I can catch a disc, pass to teammates, run to open spaces, and perform some defensive maneuvers. Though I might be able to recite poetry, solve a differential equation, or shingle a new roof, these skills are of no concern in the network of ultimate Frisbee players. Similarly, Montgomery College behaves like a network in this sense when it values its adjunct faculty only for their teaching services, offering no recognition of other material or intangible contributions they might make.
In contrast, Gatto reserves the word "community" for a collection of people who welcome each member as a whole person, able to contribute in myriad ways for the welfare of the group. In a world before globalization, the template for community in this sense was the tribe or clan, united by family ties. Each member of a tribe or clan would look out for the welfare of the others as a result of long-established habits formed from birth, not as a response to the incentives of financial gain or acclaim within a narrow domain of expertise.
Networks are the default mode of organizing these days because of how globally connected we are. In order for an institution to survive, or to serve as a national "model of excellence" (to use the language of Montgomery College's mission statement), it cannot draw a narrow circle around "in-group" members and try to squeeze every last bit of productivity out of them. An institution has to reach out to other geographies and families, evaluating potential recruits using only a handful of criteria. These criteria, such as teaching excellence or fund-raising skills, define the network in which a recruitment effort is made.
My two weeks at the Spitz Institute served to create an artificial community (albeit a temporary one), bound to each other not just for the intellectual purposes of learning new software and pedagogical practices, but also for the other human needs of eating, sleeping, conversing, and daily commuting. Perhaps it was this resemblance, to an organizational structure long since obviated by the powers of globalization, to which I was responding in the manner I wish I could ask Google to reproduce with a "more like this" button.
Not in any of the jobs to which I recently applied would there be a chance of finding community in the sense that Gatto uses it. Only by traveling back in time, to an era where geographical and family ties had not yet been corroded to the point of irrelevance, or to a place where resistance to these globalizing forces is still strong, might I find the community of which Gatto writes. If this analysis finds sympathetic readers, perhaps they can join me in growing a local resistance against the forces that seek to separate the individual into his or her component parts, each of which appeals to only one network at a time.