This past week a staff member challenged me with a statement, “I am tired of being told that I don’t care about students!” In the moment I responded, “prove me wrong”. Stepping back, I realized that we were coming from completely different definitions of caring. Caring or showing concern, taking an interest, kindness, compassion, sympathy, and etc. are each important and something we should all demonstrate to and with others. Our students need caring adults.
I think however that caring is much more. I believe caring is also about high expectations as it relates to both behavior and academics. Caring is not settling, accepting, or acquiescing to lesser.
Rather, we need to demonstrate caring by not lowering expectations or standards. However, not lowering expectations or standards cannot be in word alone.
High expectations require consistent and constant presence and practice by the adults those behaviors expected and required of learners.
High expectations must start with a commitment of, by and for the adults to communicate, model, reinforce, recognize, and affirm the very behaviors they insist in, of and by learners.
We need to care enough about our students not to accept less than albeit in 1) learning to use their minds well, 2) learning to make responsible decisions including the consequences as well as benefits, and 3) learning the rights, roles, and responsibilities of citizenship, and community.
Caring is ensuring that access and opportunity to learn the habits or discipline of learning is consistently and constantly reinforced.
Caring is proactive not reactive!
Caring is a choice not a condition!
Caring is doing!
Our present behavioral and academic performance reveals mixed levels of effect and impact related to high expectations – we must do more! We must care more!
By the by, we have control over our expectations – low or high.
On a related matter, we know we are expending vast amounts of energy, time and effort on training as well as planning. It is extremely important to note that our present reality is defined by being behind.
Without excuse or explanation, we are behind in our capacities (curriculum competence and coherence, effective instructional practice, use of formative and summative assessments to inform both teaching and learning, and the culminating effect – student performance).
In addressing the legacy of both failed learning and the failure to learn we now more than ever are confronted by our reflections, images of ourselves and behavior that until recent were out of focus and not easily recognized. It is possible that the reluctance or outright refusal to accept responsibility for past performance was intentional. I, however have surmised that it has been more of “didn’t know” rather than “didn’t do” situation. Hence the knowing and doing gap was exacerbated literally by not knowing. This in part provides insight into the intensive training and planning agenda we have initiated.
This has come at a price, however.
We are exhausted.
Yet, the sense of urgency has never been greater. We cannot stop and rest. The students who most need our best, effective work are here now not tomorrow. We cannot wait for staff to “get it”. They must “get it” and “do it”. This brings me back to caring.
The factor we have control over is also the fuel to drive, to push, to pull us forward. These are our expectations.
We must care enough to accept that different results don’t come from different students, different parents, or different administrators. Different results come from caring enough to set, implement, monitor, and assess our expectations for teaching and learning.
Where they are too low –
We must increase them!
Where they are inconsistent –
We must make them consistent!
Where they are not constant –
We must make them constant!
Where they are not present –
We must make them present!
Where they are not practiced –
We must practice them!
Each and every one of us is responsible for caring just as each and every one of us is responsible for building and expanding our capacities.
How we define caring has everything to do with whether or not we will succeed. Moreover, it will determine if our students succeed.
How do you define caring?
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