A community is a place where one lives, works, and plays. The word community is also used to refer to some subgroup, as in ‘a community of scholars,’ or ‘artists.’ A community is a social organization that is “territorially localized and through which its members satisfy most of their daily needs and deal with most of their common problems” (Olsen 1968). Community occupy particular territories, share and display common values such as a mutual sense of dependence, identity of interests, a sense of belonging, and an expected pattern of behavior. The essence of community is the feeling of belonging or the “we.’ THE RURAL COMMUNITYRural communities are not all alike, but they have some common features. Rural communities are usually small, and people are engaged in agriculture, fishing, forestry, mining, food gathering, and cottage industries. Some anthropologists refer to rural residents as peasants. Population density is low and the human-to-land ratio is small, an aspect which affects the nature of social interaction. Competition may be seen among those jockeying for political, religious, or cultural positions, or in the struggle for control over land. In the Philippines, it is divided into 16 administrative regions, 79 provinces, 113 cities, 1,495 municipalities, and 41, 994 barangays. The rural family was estimated to be 52.4% of the total population, with the remaining 47.6% assumed by the urban population (NSO). The term ‘rural community’ is usually associated with the barrio of yore. The barrio is peopled by simply folks, characterized by primary group relations and Gemeinschaft interactions. The farmers, usually neighbors and kinsfolk, usually work together in the fields and embark on collective projects, such as the construction of local school buildings or community centers (Abueva 1969). The Rural FamilyThe family is the basic social unit of society and an important socializing agency. In the rural areas, there are more nuclear than extended families.A newly married couple may stay with their family for a while, until they can stand on their own. The family continually relates to the couple by offering guidance and advice. The family has immediate neighbors of kapitbahay to which they have interlocking social interactions. People are related to one another in some kind of kinship or blood ties. The relations are familistic, and there is strong dependence on the family. The strong feeling of family loyalty usually leads to nepotism, lack of self-reliance, and indifferences to welfare institutions or parasitism. Rural EconomyAccording to Castillo, most poor households live in the rural areas and are engaged in agriculture enterprises. Farmers are the poorest in the country, and there is a large economic gap between the farmers and non-farmers. Farmers wanted to have more children as they are the source of labor. Children help their parents in various chores at home and in the farm. Rural GovernmentThe barangay, or the barrio was the basic political unit during the Spanish colonial period. During the American period, barrio was under the charge of a member of the Municipal Council. Political autonomy was extended within the passage of the Barrio Council Act of 1956 and the Revised Barrio Charter of 1963. Rural EducationMost people in the rural areas dream that their children achieve a college education, as they believe that a college degree in the means for a better social status and life. This not a guarantee due to some reasons. Many elementary schools are not accessible to pupils in the rural areas. Some remote barangays have no school at all. Some buildings are small and dilapidated. Rural areas lack of teachers; and some assigned there appear incompetent and conduct lessons in uninteresting ways.
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