February 22…Noddings: Schooling and a More Caring Society
Thinking back to your schooling, do you feel that you learned to “care”? If so, was it anything like Noddings’ version? Do keep in mind that, while she is most certainly interested in caring for others (and being cared), she is also talking about caring for learning, knowledge, etc. How do you think you would react to Noddings if you were preparing to become a teacher (Amy, you won’t need to pretend!)?
I feel like for the most part I was not taught in school to care. The few things that taught me care were because of prescribed rules and disciplinary actions. The two closest things I can think of was that we always had rules you had to respect the classroom things, like we couldn’t break the desks. The other was when I made fun of a girl and was forced to apologize. For me, that humanized her and I realized I didn’t like being made fun of so why would it be okay for me to. Even that though came mostly from inside me.
ReplyDeleteI think Noddings focused more on care through a more sophisticated view. In her philosophy children would not care because those were the rules. They would care because they struggled with complex issues and because of this students learned to make moral decisions in life. She would also teach skills necessary for caring, like understanding friendship, loyalty, and respect, through literature, psychology, philosophy, and discussions. I think that when children are educated through caring, something that is fundamentally human and entirely applicable to life, care of education will come naturally.
If I were on the path to becoming a teacher, I’d look for a job at a school that has implemented her ideas! I think that her philosophy is the way that children should be taught and raised. I know that many of these things are not being taught at home, or at least in many homes. I want to be an instrument to build a responsible, moral generation.
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ReplyDeleteIn school I was taught by a small number of teachers to care about learning and about my education, but I don’t feel that I was given very much in the ways of caring about other people. That isn’t saying that my teachers taught me to be an asshole, but the system in my schools was completely different from what Noddings would have. Maybe this is because the social growth and development that both Noddings and Dewey support was left in the hands of the students. We were very rarely given the chance to develop our social toolkit when the main focus was always on the academics.
ReplyDeleteIf I were preparing to become a teacher, I think that I would find Noddings’s views to be incredibly insightful. I would encourage students to develop both a sense of care and social behaviors. I would try to create lessons that allow students to use social skills to make their learning of a subject relevant to themselves.
I think that fostering a caring attitude in students is one of the best possible things that we could do for our society. They would not only directly create a more positive society, but as they develop through hands-on academics they would evolve into capable leaders and policy makers who could then further help society.
I think the only time I really learned to care about my education was when I had to choice to pick and choose what classes I wanted to take. So in elementary school, I probably did not really care about what I was learning because I am pretty sure I had the typical attitude of a child which is school is just school. Its something that we have to do. But then as I started moving up and I got to choose what classes I wanted to take, I began to care. The reason I cared was because I was interested in the topic and I felt that what I was learning was/is beneficial to my life; especially in area of psychology. I believe that we see more people caring about learning when they reach college because it is up to the individual of what they want to learn. So of course we are going to pick classes that are interesting to us and hopefully we as the students would fully be engaged in what we are learning.
ReplyDeleteI think teachers that adopted the feminist pedagogy learning style resemble Nodding a lot. I have/ am taking classes where teachers are teaching under the feminist pedagogy style and I must say those tend to be my favorite classes and I learn the most in those classes. Teachers not only care about you as an individual but they fully care about what they are teaching you and how it is being taught. Also classes are more so ran by the students and students pick and choose as too how and what they want to learn. That creates an open environment where people feel free to talk about whatever they want. Also because we are all responsible for each others learning people are more open and honest.
I care about what I am being taught and what I am learning, so if I was becoming teacher I would agree with Nodding because I believe that when you care about what your learning is when you get the most out of your education.
I was taught to care about learning and bettering myself. A few select teachers, who engaged and took a genuine interest in getting to know their students, taught us to care about truth, to be critical and savvy, and to care about the big picture. I was never really taught to care in an interpersonal sense in school, outside of the “don’t hit each other” admonitions of kindergarden.
ReplyDeleteMy reactions to Noddings as an aspiring teacher would be as follows: I was in disagreement with Noddings' assertion that we should base everything around caring. She went on to illustrate that doing so would not supplant traditional subjects of study, which I thought was, in the end, a decent proposal, but I disagree with the thought process that it is the school's job to impart morals.
Going back to one of our in-class conversations, "education does not solely consist of what is taught in the classroom." I don't see it as the responsibility of the formal education system to teach children how to make friends or be moral people. This is a real that is the responsibility of the parents (though I don't think it is solely the parents' responsibility, nor do I think we should purge any discussion of morality from our formal education).
As an aspiring teacher, I would think that Noddings' quest would be served best, not by changing the curriculum (not saying it doesn't need changing, but I don't think it needs to include classes on "How to care") by implementing what she suggests at the end of the seventh page of argument (and what she gives hardly a paragraph): keeping students and teachers together for an extended amount of time.
This process, called looping, seems to alleviate many of the problems inherent in the current educational system; it allows a teacher to get to know his or her students' habits, difficulties, interests and issues (instead of learning it and not having time to utilize the information), it allows students to learn in a fluid fashion and not have educational flow interrupted by having to learn new procedural system when transitioning to a new teacher, AND it would allow for the building of the types of bonds that Noddings seems to be advocating.
Upon reflecting of my days in K through 12, I feel that the schools projected a balance between learning to “care” and a controlled curriculum. My experiences in my upbringing, including education, are where I was taught to care. Because my teachers were actually people, not robots or insensitive beings, they seemed to step in and teach students about “caring” when the situation presented itself. These situations could include disputes between classmates, show and tell, field day, and job day. I mean the encompassing of external values, other than educational teachings; teach students how to care for other individuals, future careers, and teamwork. I believe this is how I learned to care for myself and others. As far as caring about my education and learning, I still believe I was given ample opportunity to have a curriculum-based learning while still having the opportunity to guide myself by picking elective courses. Even in middle school, I was able to pick woodshop where I learned the value of handiwork, art, and craftsmanship. This gave me the desire to look at other fields where I could use my knowledge, creativity, and skills. So I would agree that I learned to care in school. Though the majority of my school was curriculum-based, I believe it was a good balance between Noddings’ version and a strict coursework. I think Noddings would have appreciated that students by the age of 12 were able to choose electives that they found appealing to their education.
ReplyDeleteIf I was preparing to become a teacher, I would think that Noddings proposes a legitimate point when it comes to education. We cannot reason to eliminate poverty or injustice simply by stricter curriculums and standardize testing. I think that teaching students to care for others and themselves is an important aspect of the developmental process. I also believe that pushing for an education that is particularly interesting to the individual is very important to keep that student engaged in his education. What good is algebra to a writer? Though the argument could be made for a carpenter and geometry, I think she makes a valid point in that a strict curriculum does not apply to realistic society as a whole. If I was a teacher, I would appreciate the philosophy of Noddings and prefer to work in an environment that would promote such ethics.
I would say that more or less my whole upbringing has been centered around caring for others, and if not caring, it has been about paying respect to individual and social differences. My parents always emphasized the importance of being a human being before anything else, and I have adopted that view completely. Having that said, I can say that I agree with most of Nodding’s arguments. Before seeing myself as a student, I learned to see myself, and everyone around me, as human beings. Although I know that a person can do just fine without the ability to “care” in the sense that Noddings mean, and still end up with a family and a well-paying job, that is not the kind of person that I would like to be. It is my hope that most children learn to care from their parents, but sadly I don’t think that is the case. I therefore think that Noddings approach is both good and necessary, because I think that children need to learn to care for what they do and for the people they are surrounded by.
ReplyDeleteThe ability to care applies to learning too, and I believe that I wouldn’t be good at anything I do if I didn’t care about it. I know this partly because I happen to be horrible at things that I lack interest in, but I also remember instances of when knowledge and caring have interplayed in my childhood. My parents, in particular my dad, believes that traveling is just as important as going to school, and a trip with him was always more like a superlong interactive lecture than a vacation. My professors didn’t quite hold this view, however, and when we decided to go to Australia for five weeks, they simply said no – Mimmi, is not allowed to be away from school for that long. My dad was shocked to hear that the school thought that they would be able to teach me more during five weeks of school, than he was during five weeks on the Gold Coast. With a promise that I would study every day, they unwillingly let me leave for this “vacation”.
Unlike what I learned in school, however, I learned about nature by being in it, food through eating it, culture by interacting with it and climate and geography through experiencing it. But most of all, I learned through curiosity and caring. I learned to be aware and that awareness of knowledge has always been an inspiration for me to learn more.
I understand that not all children will have the opportunity to travel to learn about new cultures, societies and geography, but I do think that applying a sophisticated system where learning is based on the children wanting and being eager to learn is key to finding inner motivation and to being mindful of what you learn. Do I need to say I would be pretty likely to adopt Nodding’s approach if I was to become a professor?
In my opinion, "schooling" refers to my education both at school and at home since the two were undoubtedly intertwined when I was a child. At home, I was very much taught to care. I was taught to care about my own self-worth, independence and ability, and I was taught to care about my family members and the respect that we shared among one another. These lessons never wavered. I was raised to care about these things and I expected the same from myself and others at school. School and home basically aligned for the first few years. But in third grade, I was asked to take a test that would deem me "gifted" or "non-gifted"...I was "non-gifted" and immediately felt not smart enough. It was then that I realized there were some sort of rules for caring. My third-grade self wondered if my teachers cared about me less or more now that I didn't "make it"..whatever "it" was. As I continued in school, I noticed that students were perpetually sorted by how good we were at Math, English, and Science. We were divided in "teams" in middle school, we were in "accelerated" or "non-accelerated" classes, we went to specialty schools, we took honors courses, and we took AP level classes. With these markers, it was easy to distinguish which kids should really care about where they were going and which kids needn't bother.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Noddings that the controlled way in which our curriculum is established, with clear-cut valued or non-valued subject matter, fosters an educational environment that leaves out many students. I think it teaches many kids (obviously kids that have not made it to our honor's college class) really not to care about their own self-worth, ability, and intelligence. They didn't fit into the mold, or didn't figure out how to fit in the mold, and they have been successfully weeded out.
I attribute my schooling at home for the ability I had at an early age to overcome the "markers" that were placed on me and figure out how to succeed in our school system. I was taught that if I wanted to achieve something and cared enough about it, I could do it. I was taught that my family really cared about me and believed in me. Unfortunately, this type of schooling at home isn't present for many students and it's not taught at school unless we are deemed smart enough to really deserve it. I think Nodding's system would allow for students to gain confidence in themselves and in others. In Nodding's system, all types of students would be cared for and encouraged at school, not just those that fit into our current mold of specific ability in math, science, English, and whatever else our society deems useful knowledge.
Alexis Green said ....
ReplyDeleteThinking back I never had to 'learn' (in school) to care about others or my education. When it comes to my education I taught myself. I think in order to go far and work towards a career you have to care about your education genuinely. As you et older you have to narrow down topics and take the time to figure out what field you'd like to work in for the rest of your life. Without compassion for your education everything becomes a blurr and you end up going through the motions for society's sake. I want to become a professor. As for Noddings view, I think it applies more to k-12. If I wanted to become a K-12 teacher I would love the ideas she has put out there and the different opportunities for education she has presented. This was honestly my favorite reading. The idea of teaching caring for education and for others in school is great. Schooling definitely needs to become more of a realistic enviornment. For example, my favorite part iswhen Noddings refrenced teaching about friendship. Those are the types of things students should learn early on and then as they get older and possibly go to college, they can better handle personal situations and still be able tofocus on school. Not saying that some things wont cause stress but students can be more aware. Noddings proposal of a program for 'non-college-bound' students is great as well. It would givethem a sense of pride and accomplishment as well instead of feeling less than those who choose to go to college.
Noddings really gave great ideas for change in schooling. I agree that caring is a big part of education because you have to care for yourself before you can care for your education and others. The bottom line is that Noddings is right. Schooling needs to become more about an indiviual's interests and plans for the future wihot shoving a curriulum down his or her throat.
In the early years of Elementary School my education did foster care for learning and for others. However around fourth grade or so it was little more than care about doing well in school, and I do not mean that to say care about learning but rather grades. As Ryan reminded us we spoke of education not being restricted to school. I learned to care about others from my family and interactions with friends. It was also something I gained by discovering how much it sucks to feel uncared for and learning to empathize.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to what I would think about Noddings if I were preparing to go into a career of teaching, I would certainly wish to foster a sense of caring in all the aspects. While I noted I developed my social caring from within as well as from family, I believe some of it should be fostered in the school. Unfortunately some families don't teach others to care for others as you would wish to be cared for, and it would benefit all the students to help balance that out. Still I'm not sure how I could incorporate all the forms of caring without either forcing it or having to change the system, a tough thing for one teacher.
My elementary education was religious based, so I do believe I learned a certain type of caring. I did enjoy reading Noddings' thoughts on friendship because I think that played a big role in how I learned to care. I never really learned to care from the school itself or from what I was taught, but I learned through my interactions with other people and what I observed. I saw other people who had really close friendships, and I wanted to have that feeling. However, I do feel that I was never taught how to correctly facilitate friendship because I often had the problem with people taking advantage of my kindness. Outside of the social aspect of caring, my teachers or school subjects never really taught me to care about learning and education. They wanted me to pass tests and such of course, but very few teachers inspired me to care about my education. It's just as Thomas said, I felt that they cared more about grades than learning. I can't bash all my teachers though, I've had a handful of teachers that inspired me.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of Noddings' version of "care", it was those handful of teachers, not the schooling itself that taught me to care about learning. My family and friends taught me to care about people I loved. I have to say (however cheesy it may sound) that my religious background and relationship with God definitely taught me how to care for people and love. Noddings tells us that it is the people, not the institution that teaches. I know this is true because I could care less about the schools I attended or the classes I took that were supposed to "prepare me for college". But, I deeply care about the teachers, family, and friends that really taught me about life.
If I were preparing to be a teacher, Noddings would definitely be an inspiration for me but not a model. I do not think that I would mold my teaching style completely around her ideas, but I would place more importance on caring. Some of the most memorable classes I've had were when teachers took a break from the material and taught us about life. I would try to cater more to the individuality of each student. However, it seems her views are in a "matter-of-fact" tone. It sounds like, "Oh school would be so much better if we just did this this and this." I think that that's a little impractical.
I believe that my educational upbringings did not adhere to Nodding’s ‘caring’ model. I grew up in Kansas where the Midwestern approach seemed to value self reliance over community togetherness. This does not mean that I was forcibly separated from my peers to the point that I was a solitary working machine. Though, for a large part, my teacher’s did teach individuality. In third grade I probably had the closest experience to ‘group’ togetherness as I was in a class divided into a small group of third graders (which I was a part of… redundant I know…) and a larger group of second graders. But instead of learning to work together and learn together, our teacher forced us to be completely silent while she worked with the ‘toddlers’ as not to interrupt her ‘lecture’.
ReplyDeleteI’ve also noticed that both in Kansas and Virginia, schools have a strong tendency to separate the ‘advanced’ learners from the ‘remedial’ learners. In some part this follows Nodding’s beliefs because it allows people to excel in their specialty. I know it helped to teach me to become passionate about Mathematics. I was able to compete in different programs and advance through my studies at a quick rate of succession that kept me interested, something that could not have been fully achieved if each study was truly a group study. However, it also goes against creating a community that fosters true, internal love for each other. You learn to alienate people that are outside of your ‘social/educational’ class. In Nodding’s world of group effort, I can only see a potential success if there really is a love or at least appreciation for fellow woman across the social barriers. How else would we learn to accept a ‘lower’ class job as being important?
I think I would try and hold some of Nodding’s philosophy in mind by reassuring my students that each role in society is important. However, I would also try and remember to teach my students to strive to be successfully in our society, thus be able to perform well in a liberal arts education even if they have a definite specialty. In so many words, I would try to implement Nodding’s beliefs into my teaching pedagogy in a pragmatic sense, and not lose focus of how one achieves success in our modern society.
In my personal school experience, I had particular years that I learned about caring. It all depended on the teacher. I think I had many more of these years when I was in Elementary school, either because we were so cute and lovable then or because all my teachers were sweet southern women. Regardless, it was a more relaxed classroom where we did different activities that often demonstrated this caring attitude that Noddings talks about. However, there were certainly those teachers interspersed that seemed to only care about the grades on my papers and had no interest in knowing who I was as a person.
ReplyDeleteAs I am truly preparing to be a teacher, this is one of my greatest concerns. I entered this field to be among children and love, care and teach them, not to promote a specific educational agenda or cram their brains with the "appropriate" knowledge. However, I do believe Noddings has a valid point about the excessive attention giving to preparing our students for national standards. Teachers now feel obliged to "teach" their students X amount of information by Spring. When one is on such a tight schedule, even if they are a loving, caring person- there is no time for that petty-ness! It is this attitude that is digging us into a deeper and deeper hole. A hole that is causing us to loose sight of the simple fact that we are humans.
I have pondered much about how I will address this issue for that day when I am standing before a classroom of little children. My plan thus far is to "care under the radar." I will develop a curriculum that strategically weaves as many subjects and SOL points together as possible through different activities, most of them hands on. I aim to create a mini version of life in my classroom. By this I mean, I will aim to provide them with as many experiences as possible that will both teach them the required material and value their individual lives. The more that our classrooms reflect a "living" environment, the more likely our students will be treated as "living beings".
I can honestly say that none of my teachers in high school had the compassion that Noddings was talking about. Between preparing students for SOLs and kind of just pushing students along, none of them showed any sort of care or commitment to bettering their students. Now this is not to say that all my teachers were robots giving lectures, handing out tests, grade, repeat; some were nicer than others but they didn't show a lot of interest in the individual students. Most of them felt like being that caring was reserved for our counselors.
ReplyDeleteI would completely embrace her way of preparing faculty and I would strive to meet that level of care and dedication to my students. Of course I would be within whatever boundaries and not care "too much" about my students, but I would recognize them for who they are and want to be. I don't know what sort of classes teachers take to get certified, but one of them should be on compassion and respect for the individual.
I think that learning to care was something that was taught in Kindergarten and maybe a few grades after. Sharing is caring. Treat others that way you want to be treated. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. These lessons stick with us, but are not necessarily nurtured throughout the rest of our scholastic career. I think Noddings would approve of these small kernels of wisdom, but would want to see them develop as a core part of the learning environment. I didn't experience the same compassion and understanding in middle school and high school that I experienced in elementary school. I think this is partly because of the push for independent learning but also because our culture at large doesn't value compassion.
ReplyDeleteAs far as caring about your education, so much of that depends not only on the teacher, but on the parents and the rest of the community. If that love of learning is fostered at a young age, then it becomes not only a part of your education but a part of yourself. Without that support, learning can quickly become meaningless and students mere cogs in the machine. It is only by caring about students and inspiring caring in return that students become passionate for their education and compassionate for their community, locally and globally.
I believe that my education, especially K through 5, fostered care for others and for learning. I wasn't in a traditional elementary school program, but instead was placed into the "Discovery Program" for "gifted" individuals. This program taught 2nd and 3rd grades together and 4th and 5th grades together, so I was with the same group of kids and the same teachers for my entire elementary education. I think it was largely beneficial because the students and the teachers were comfortable enough with each other to be unafraid of trying new things and failing. Additionally, when learning about things such as the colonization of America, we would play long-lasting games in which we would divide into teams or families and pretend like we were the colonizers. We had to make decisions, spend "money," and do work for our family in order to succeed in the New World. How well we did on our homework assignments and in-class work would gain our families money or abilities to perform certain tasks that would better our quality of life in the "colony." And every student in the classroom had a daily job to perform and tasks were rotated weekly to ensure that we experienced all of them. I think all of these things helped to prepare me for the real world, but also taught me to care about the values of learning, hard work, and other people. I believe the caring should be one of the main aims of education, but that it should be a part of other classroom activities. Were I to become a teacher, I think I would do many of the same things done by my elementary school teachers.
ReplyDeleteAs far as academics go, in my experience you were taught to DO, not to care. If you were smart and could pass tests without trying, you were rewarded. If you worked hard because your parents made you do it and got good grades, you were also praised. Caring was not a co-requisite. At one point or another we all become adept at mindlessly doing things we don’t want to do. These periods of time are like static in our memory. When one gets the high mark on the test or the sought-after praise, we forget how long it took to get there and get so caught up in our accomplishment-high that we don’t pause to contemplate whether it was all worth it. Is there nothing else in the world that you could have spent those hours on that would have been more meaningful to you? A college student that truly wants to be there might say that studying for that test was certainly worth every second, but in early schooling kids are more-or-less coerced into shutting their desires off and just doing what they have to do.
ReplyDeleteIn the realm of caring for individuals, it wasn’t taught in the curriculum but I’d say that most students learned to care about each other in an acceptable way. Through constant exposure to new people via class-switching and extra-curricular activities, students get social skills and build solidarity with each other in a “we’re in this together” sort of way. There are always the loners and pariahs that don’t develop the right self-esteem and compassion for others, but to ask of teachers to fix that is asking them to be trained psychologists, which is a bit much. Perhaps schools should hire more psychologists. The way it is now you have one or a handful of overworked counselors in the entire school barely making a dent in the plethora of bad parenting and bullying that exists.
Sorry this is late; I didn't know if CRE people should post or not :)
ReplyDeleteWhile reading Nel Noddings' article, I was particularly struck by her insistence on the importance of learning how to properly value intimate relationships/friendships. Drawing on Aristotle to support her view, she built, what I think, was a striking case in favor of why this is a crucial step in a child's social shaping. We can say it is the parent's duty to instill this understanding in their child but, as my father says constantly, there is no handbook that the give to parents and I certainly wouldn't expect a parent to create as compelling or convincing of a "lesson plan" as a motivated, focused teacher. I believe the rigidity by which we now designate the roles of teaching certain subjects (friendship, good morals at home, "intellectual" topics at school) is limited. Looking back, I recall raising mealworms in petri dishes and making cardboard boxes to hold my valentines and chocolates from the other students. For me, aside from the basic social knowledge one acquires naturally from interaction with others, I can hardly find a credible instance of formation with regards to the idea of teaching one to "care". I can quite easily imagine the opposition to carving time out of the day to teach "caring" but that is just the problem—an effective education should not be regimented by worksheets about caring; it should be consistently and passionately woven through the other curriculum. After all, an education is meant to prepare our children to be part of society and members of a society do not get to turn on and off the ability to care. I think what needs to happen is a subtle weaving, much like what Noddings' proposes, of the wide array of material, "academic" or otherwise. As many of our readings have pointed out, instilling a sincere bond with the world around oneself inspires one to treat it and that within it better.
I think that Noddings was one of the most interesting articles to me thus far. Caring is tricky because caring too much can lead to being taken advantage of. I do agree with Noddings on the fact that caring is lacking in our current curriculum. I think the purpose of education is to help people lead a successful life (and success is not measured by $) and a curriculum that lacks love and caring for self, others, and learning is not teaching students what they need to know to for the future good of themselves and society. In my own educational experiences I learned to care by myself because my mom had busy schedule and my dad didn’t live close so if I wanted to succeed I had to care. Care is only a four letter word but a powerful one, it can determine how the rest of your life will be. Caring can help you get out of bed in the morning, study for a test, or make moral decisions but not caring will leave things exactly where they are.
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