Please offer your comments regarding Noddings' view of the "issues" and themes of caring that surround our teaching and learning in our classrooms today but seldom are considered or given voice. Also consider how Palmer's message in chapter two relates to Noddings' thesis.
Consider the following questions as you comment.
1. Do you agree with the author that incorporating themes of care into schools is both achievable and desirable?
2. Noddings offers several examples of how themes of care might manifest themselves in the curriculum. Can you think of any others?
3. In today's high stakes accountability education climate, do you believe there is room for caring in the curriculum?
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
"Teaching Themes of Care" by Nel Noddings
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I 100% agree that we need to add more caring and tolerance into our schools curriculum.....I feel that our students are spending to much time “plugged in” that they are missing out on the social connections of todays world.....I see that schools need to be adding caring into the curriculum.....I know that our school is working towards the social emotional side of our students.........This is HUGE!!! It will take lots of work, however it will hopefully make a huge difference in how students learn and interact....and hopefully this will help the staff as well...Once you get to the inner person you can teach that person more skills.....I know that we have so much that we have to get done...and we are all working on these things each and every day...however we need to know how are students and doing on the inside and help them to know what is social appropriate.........Students will learn better when they have had the chance to learn more about themselves.......how can we not do this for our kids........ I have always felt like it is my job to help students learn how to problem solve, work together and feel good about themselves.....self esteem is large part of the education process....
ReplyDeleteI am not sure that I buy into this idea of themes of care as an added separate element of the daily curriculum. While I agree that we, educators, should want more for our students than high test scores the educational model we exist in doesn’t support this idea. I strongly feel that good teachers are constantly modeling care for our students, care for others, and care for our environment. My classroom is one of mutual respect for each other and for other people in the building. I did agree with Noddings assessment of “care of children being too compartmentalized”, however I realize there is only so much time in a day and the time I spend with students is far less than they spend with parents and peers.
ReplyDeleteThis also brings up the question of just how much is the responsibility of the school system. If only we could educate parents on the importance of staying active in their child’s life through high school or the power of sitting down to dinner together and discussing each others day. Noddings stated that “. . . what children really need is the continuing compassion and presence of adults who represent constancy and care in their lives.” and I don’t think that should be foisted upon teachers. What a huge responsibility!
It was fascinating to read an article that actually had mathematics as a main focus for implementing an idea. I must say that was very refreshing. I have also thought of incorporating literature and research projects into the math curriculum. This is a good idea and maybe it could be implemented with a stronger time manager than me. I am in my fourth year of teaching and have yet to complete any of my courses. There are always field trips, school functions, assemblies, and pep rallies cutting into the teaching day. Then on top of that our schools commitment to “K-12ness” taking time to do cross curricular activities like last years letter boxing and trail hiking.
While I differ in opinion from Erin I do agree with her assessment of nurturing self –esteem and believe that occurs each and every day as we interact positively and with care with our students.
Reading this article I found myself realizing that teaching themes of care at the primary level is easy, but becomes increasingly difficult at the secondary level. I think Noddings must live in a fantasy world where teachers have all the time in the world to collaborate about, research, prepare, and teach themes of caring that for some may be very hard to integrate into their curriculum. I understand that he outlined an interdisaplinary unit, but that was coming up with ideas and then adding a course label. It would be much harder to take his topic and incorporate it into P.E. or American history, Physics, Chemestry, or even Pottery! I think that the idea is nice and obviously a "best practice" but few teachers have time to plan or implement. I do believe that teaching caring is important so why not make it a mandatory class as a Freshman and Junior much like our Senior project. Honestly, I look at school 50, 60, 70 years ago and ask why did they not have to teach caring... because families did it. Parents were parents, not children themselves! They taught their children values such as honestly, caring, and hard work. I look at all the problems in our children today and attribute most of it to parents! So I feel that school should teach caring, but not because they should have to, but because parents are not fullfilling their roles! So maybe we should teach parents to care about their children while we teach their children to care about themselves, for intimate others, and for the world.
ReplyDeleteNow that I've gone off on a RANT... please excuse me. I'm not fond of the structure of our society and the direction it is going! I, as an educator, can only do so much, it is the parents that can make a world of difference!
Thanks Rene for talking about parents a little more gently before me. Unfortunately I read your post after I posted. : ( I'm sure you feel as strongly about this as I do just have more self control in expressing yourself. I just see so much "bad parenting" that brings tears to my eyes! At times I feel that people should have to go through an application process to even have kids! Especially when I don't just hear about stories of abuse or neglect, but witness it in the lives of "MY" kids in my class! As I tell so many people I have 16 kids... but only 1 goes home with me at night! These kids are MY KIDS! and I care for and love each one as if they were mine. This is one of the hardest parts about being an educator...
ReplyDeleteI agree that we do need to add care to our curriculum. In my opinion, that is the essence of all learning-when students walk into the classroom, they need to know that they are valued and well cared for. If that knowledge is there, academics will follow.
ReplyDeleteI do think it is important in incorporate “caring” into our schools. In all reality it is probably more desirable than achievable. I do believe there is room in the curriculum for it. Perhaps not to the degree Noddings talks about. As with any new initiative, at first it would time, but eventually it would be effortless and the pay off would be great. I agree with Michelle that it is easier to incorporate and practice caring at the primary level. It gets harder at the secondary level. Teachers are compartmentalized by content. We work in a K-12 building that provides numerous opportunities to explore this concept. Nodding speaks about the importance of having student’s stay with the same teacher over a course of a few years in order to develop relationships. Our building has this built into it. We have one social studies teacher who will have students at least 3 times of the course of their high school career.
ReplyDeleteOne thought I had as I was reading this, was how at our faculty meetings the teachers sit together as disciplines. The middle school teachers sit at one table, primary at another, art/music etc. Perhaps something as simple as mixing up the seating would allow for new conversations, ideas and perspectives.
I understand where Rene is coming from with regards to parents. It has become increasingly evident that the role of the teacher and the schools is parenting. Although our initial response is to place the responsibility back unto the parents (where it rightfully belongs), the truth of the matter is it isn’t going to happen. So are we being irresponsible by not embracing this as our responsibility?
Another question that comes to me is ”Are we raising a society of academic robots”? Individuals, who can read, calculate and write, but have no self-awareness, compassion and global responsibility. I think I have more questions than answers.
Yes Michelle I do feel just as strongly as you do about the issue of caring and the responsibility belonging to the parents. Like you I see students each day that I know are not getting what they need at home. Some have confided in me about their individual home lives and the trauma they are experiencing. I go home at night and worry/wonder how he or she is doing. I know that I put as much caring and civic responsibililty into my curriculum as I can. I see the two as blended concepts and utilize the any opportunity that arrises to capitalize on reinforcing concern and civic responsibility in the classroom. Today we learned how to determine if a sale item was actually the correct percent off. The example I used was a much coveted pair of jeans. They were supposed to be 45% off but when students did the math the jeans had accidentally been discounted 46%. At first the students reacted like greedy consumers~too bad for the store. Then I asked them about the global impact of this mistake. Then had them talk about what if they were the employee who made the mistake. Interesting discussion for freshman.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Rene's first post. Productive and effective teachers teach the idea of caring every day, in every lesson.
ReplyDeleteThe question that was brought up: "How much of this is a teacher's responsibility? Shouldn't it be the parents?" While I agree with this statement, that yes, it should be the parents responsibility, the reality is that it is not happening as a whole in a lot of the schools that we work in. So the answer is: It's completely our responsibility. A lot of our students have only one chance during the day to see caring, and that's in us.
Just a side note: I noticed how often the author mentioned incorporating religion into his caring lessons and ideas. In this day and age, with our cultural diversity, isn't this a rather touchy area to get into in school? Separation of church and state? Am I reading into this a little too much?
Caring in the curriculum - very important. I think this is super easy to implement in elementary school classrooms - but oh, this is definitely more difficult in secondary ed. I think it is a time issue and an issue regarding the amount of time a secondary ed. Teacher spends with each group of students. In elem. ed. we are with the same group of students for the better part of the day. We build caring it into our curriculum through Responsive Classroom, etc. The fact that we are with the same children throughout the day is a plus. The caring continues through the day – through all subject areas - with consistency. That makes a huge difference. Working together, as a family unit affords lots of opportunity to talk about, refer to, and demonstrate caring. I don’t envy secondary teachers in this arena. It’s a challenge, for sure.
ReplyDeleteJust one more thing: I have had the priviledge of teaching reading in both the middle school and elementary school. I used to love the "looks" I got from the older students when I spoke to them about taking care of each other, but you know what? After a while we all established a comfortable, caring environment. Above all, they felt safe.
ReplyDeleteI agree that we have to help our students to feel safe......If one does not feel safe they will be unable to acess their education....I guess I feel like its the little things that make a big difference in the classroom.......
ReplyDeleteAgain Adam and I were talking about care. Care to me is all about being a good person. Caring, laughing, loving, joking, listening, learning are qualities that I look for in friends and people that I want to spend time with. I want to believe that as educators we all show that to our students and colleagues everyday. I agree that we subliminally display care thorough our words, thoughts, and actions. However, is that enough. I don’t think so… The point was raised about our job as teacher/parents. I agree that it is not the best solution to the problem of parenting, but as we would help a student with an academic struggle we must now help with care! At every school I have visited there has been some type of additional social skills that are explicitly taught. In fact just last week our counselor was teaching explicitly how to read body language to a group of 10 year old students. That was 45 min taken from our core subjects to teach something that was not taught in school 15 years ago. However in order to build the school/class climate it is necessary to help students gain the tools to effectively communicate and care. The roadblock is impassible if we ignore care for each other and plow ahead with academics.
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