Caring in Schools

        Hi,

     Last week, we had our classroom management class with Peter. Our topic was generally about caring. We reviwed the ideas about being caring  in a classroom and discussed the distance between a teacher and a student. We talked about where the privacy starts and the professional domain which is accountable as publicly ends for a teacher. We also mentioned our thoughts about being transparent in relationships between students  and teachers.

     Now, I would like to restate my opinion. I think everybody wants to be cared as that is a universal need  and I agree that caring students increases the success. I agree the idea that today,  if,  for whatever reasons families cannot meet the needs for caring, other institutions must fill the need. As educaters, we must take public responsibility for raising healty, competent, and happy children. Like Noddings, I also think that schools cannot achieve their academic goals without providing caring and continuity for students.

      According to German philosopher Martin Heidegger, a caring relation is, in its most basic form, a connection or encounter between two human beings ; a carer and a cared-for. In order for the relation to be properly called caring both parties must contribute to it. It is said that sometimes even though teachers care very much , students still claim that “They dont care!” , the reason for this when the caring is not received, it is not comleted and this cannot be called caring. Reception, recognition, and response seem to be primary to charecterize the consiousness of one who is cared for . After receving the care,and recognising , if it is responded then the process can be called completed. At the other side, for a carer, caring is more than motivational displacement which is the sense that our motive energy is flowing toward others and their projects. For example, think that, we are students at university who know the city and the facilities very well. One of our exchange students who is new and does not know a lot about city says that s/he is so bored and asks us what to do as social activity. When we begin to think about the social activities to participate in the city for that person , this is motivational displacement, when we suggest an idea to help that person get rid of this problem, that is caring .That is to say, when the carer does something to help, then it is called caring and I think that we need that kind of caring teachers these days.

     Some people argue or worry that, that kind of relationship puts to much burden on teachers and very little on the students. I dont agree because the roles in that kind of  relationship is not stable. Caring is mutual. When teacher cares  students and if students response, in this case both parties contribute to caring each other. It is not only students who needs to be cared all the time but also teachers by students. That behaviour creates a positive and open communication athmosphere in classroom.

     Personally, I would like to have that kind of teacher. A teacher who really cares me, my ideas, my needs and feelings. If I knew that, teacher cares me, I would do the same for my teacher and that is what I generally do. When I see that teacher cares me, I feel a strong sense of responsibility for my teacher because s/he does not have to do this and  and I know that  requires a great devotion to teaching. I love my teachers who behave in that way but I dont like the others who do not care students. There are some teachers who see teaching as only a job to get salary that does not require so much effort. They choose the easy way, they come to class, give the lesson, ask questions and leave it. They do not give importance to the other side,I mean students , and I do not like them and I also do not like the ones who tries to be cool and acts as if s/he does know a lot then us and thinks that s/he is the best or the most important person about that subject or anything because they tend to ignore our existence as individuals who have different ideas, characters, feelings and perpectives.I do not respect them as teachers.

     However, what I declare is not being too much close to each other. I still think that neither teachers nor students should be transparant. Caring does not mean to be too much close,  to me. I think that keeping the distance is still good idea, as I stated before ,and as  Thomas Ziehe suggests, a teacher should be someone who is active, pretty much engaged, and tries to understand the students but a teacher should not be trasparant or should not expect the students to be so. In our classroom management class, we discussed some cases. Mine was a teacher who invites his best students to his home and has parties with his students and lets them to drink alcohol etc. The teacher’s  intention was to make his new students to communicate with his old students because he invites both of them but later he was critisezed by his collegues and I think his collegues were right. As a teacher when you invite your students to your private place, like your home, and have parties together and drink, I think, here the privacy starts and the professional domain which is accountable as publicly ends for a teacher. He could have organized a party in a public place, like, maybe at the canteen of  the school or in a cafe and he could have invited all of his students not only the best ones and organized the activities to be done at the party accordingly maybe also with other teachers participation. From my point of view, I would not like to see my teacher drinking alcohol and being so close to students in his/her home and doing silly things. It would be nice to gather and do something together that cannot ruin the respect for teacher. That is what I would like to see my teachers way of  behaving ; sincere and warm but not too much close.

     Our classroom management teacher is one of the teachers I like. I admire his patience to listen and care all of his students’ thougts and ideas. Even though he keeps the distance, he treats equally to all of us and gives importance. He is not warm in his relationships with students which sometimes makes students stay too much away from him. When the class ends, all of the interest that he shows during class disappears and that makes students to see  him as a stranger or a person that does his job professionally and leaves when the time is up. I dont know if that is right or wrong but I notice that he cares his job and students even though his efforts  to stay away very much. He listens us and must care that he arranged a teaching practice for us despite the fact that he does not have to do. He knew that we wanted to observe a class in a public school of Denmark and he arranged it for us. We all appreciated him.

     That is all what I want to say for know. Thanks for your attention to my blog .See you in another entry :)