Caring John Wayne AMU

In Nel Nodding’s book Caring she explores the concept of caring for, ethical caring and the ethical ideal. We all have people in our life that we care for, but do we really know if that care is being received. Is our definition or meaning of caring the same as the person that we are caring for? For some people they believe they are showing care for someone if they are tough and strict on someone and others coddle you and support whatever you do. The concepts of ethical caring and the ethical ideal I struggled with. From my understanding of it is that ethical caring is the way we should go about caring for someone and that ethical ideal is the way we perceive that our care is being received. All three of these concepts tie into a bigger picture of what care is. What we might think is caring is actually not, and what we think is not caring might actual be. We need to understand the essence of caring and the parts which make up caring to truly understand what it means to care for someone.
For example, while I was in the military I encountered many different people and they all showed different ways of caring. My first platoon Sargent was a complete hard ass, if you messed up one thing, or missed one minute detail he would be all over your ass. At the time I thought he was just being a hard ass, but it was not until I got my butt chewed for doing something right by my company commander that I realized that my platoon Sargent actually cared for me. He went into the company commander’s office and explained the situation and the issue was resolved. After that incident he sat our platoon down and explained to us why he was always so tough on us. By him knowing that we paid attention to even the smallest detail, he would be able to back us up if we ever got in trouble. He would know that we were following instructions and that we were not messing anything up. If he could not get the situation resolved, he would take blame for it because we were just doing what we were supposed to be doing.
This is supported by Noddings concept of caring and acting. She explains that when we care, we should be able to present a reason for our action/inaction which would persuade a reasonable, disinterested observer that we acted in the behalf of the cared-for (Noddings 23). This is exactly what my platoon Sargent was able to do, he was able to explain the reasons for his actions and persuade us into why he was actually caring for us and not just being strict. If he was unable to convince the group that his actions were meant to be caring, then according to Noddings, my platoon Sargent was not actually caring for us. As I look into the way my platoon Sargent cared for us and how it would relate to caring for high school aged kids, this would not work at all. You would not be able to gain their trust nor is it an appropriate way to care for kids of that age. You would need to take a different approach in how you show your care for them, otherwise you will not gain the respect of your students and likely run into conflict in your classroom.
Another concept Noddings brings up in her book is circles and chains. Basically, this relates to those who we know well i.e. our family members/close friends, which are in the inner circle, and then as we move out in the circle we have acquaintances, people that we feel comfortable with. Then linked to this circle is a chain, the people who we do not know yet, or who are connected to someone that is already in our circle. This may put some people in a dilemma, how do we care for all these people, how can we expend so much energy in ensuring that we treat everyone with the same amount of care. In a perfect world we would be able to provide the same amount of care to our friends and acquaintances as we do with our family members, but in actuality it is difficult for someone to expend the same amount of energy on everyone. Nodding states “under normal circumstances, I must do for a colleague is different from what I must do for my child (Noddings 47).” The most important aspect for us as teachers is how we balance our care for our students, the chain, with our care for our family and close friends, the inner circle. Some of our students will become part of our inner circle, some will remain on the outer circle, and some will remain a chain. As teachers it is important for us to try and bring those students who are chains into our circle. The moment we lose that desire and need to try and bring our students into our circle and truly care for our students is the moment that we as teachers lose sense in what we are supposed to be doing.
Next we will move onto the first of three concepts which I feel are important to educators, dialogue. As Noddings expresses in her book, dialogue is vital in every aspect of education (Noddings 186). It is important that educators listen to their students and not just talk to them. When educators open dialogue with their students it allows the students to think out loud, express their feelings on a certain subject. Also, it allows the teacher to provide feedback to their students, maybe lead the conversation into a different direction which will enhance the students’ knowledge on a subject. Noddings goes on in the chapter talking about a restructuring of schools to help facilitate dialogue between teachers and students. She suggest teachers spend up to three years with the students so the gain a “deep caring relationship that could provide the basis for trust and genuine dialogue (Noddings 186).” While this may be necessary to build a deep caring relationship, but it does not mean that you cannot have genuine dialogue with your students. It is the responsibility of the teacher to facilitate this dialogue with the students, if they are not the ones who attempt to facilitate dialogue then it will be difficult for dialogue to happen.
The second concept is practice and by this Noddings means practicing caring. She suggests that students get involved in service oriented programs. Whether it be doing community service at a local retirement home or helping out at a local soup kitchen. This will teach students to care for others and just not themselves. Additionally, it will give the students a sense of accomplishment, a sense of belonging. While all students may not be part of a sports team or music program, this provides students with that void. They will not only feel better about themselves, but feel as though they are giving back to a greater good. So as educators if we form and set up a service group at our school we can introduce and hopefully grow our students into respectable young adults.
The last concept is that of conformation, not only in that teachers confirm their care for a student, but students confirming the teachers care. As educators having that sense of conformation that your students receive your care and replicate it back is the reason why most educators seek this profession. Most people who aspire to be educators want to share their knowledge with prospective students and change their lives. While they know that it may not happen with every single student which comes thru their classroom, even one or two students who acknowledge the teachers care makes an educator happy. In addition to that, the student also needs the conformation of the teacher caring for them. Noddings brings up the issue of grades and how that may have an effect on a student’s feeling for a teacher. You may have a student that you care about, but they receive bad grades, the student may receive this as you not liking him/her.
In conclusion, as educators it is vital that we have a clear understanding of caring a how we compose ourselves and react to certain situations affect our care. We need to ensure that our students know the reason for our actions and understand and receive our care. It is important that we accept students into our circle, show them that we care, build their trust and ensure that we do not leave them outside of our circle. This can be achieved through dialogue with our students; it will show them that we care about their opinions and thoughts, that we are just not talking to them, but discussing topics with them. Additionally, we need to give our students the opportunity to practice caring. This can be achieved by providing them with the opportunity to do community service so that they have experience in caring for someone or something and receiving that care back. Lastly it is vital that educators and students confirm the care and receive this. Without conformation some teachers may burn out from the profession and students may not respect their teachers.

The Class
In the movie The Class we are introduced to the main character François, who teaches French to a group of 14 to 15 year olds. At times in the movie François seems to really care for his students, but at other times he does not. There are a few good examples from this movie which relate to the concepts of Noddings book. The first one is dialogue, at the end of the movie François ask his class what they had learned that year. One by one students start answering and François provides feedback or helps facilitate the conversation to pull out more information from the student. In particular with Esmeralda, she tells the teacher that she has not learned anything throughout the year. François ask her if she read any books outside the class and she starts talking about a book she read, Plato, which surprises François, but he engages her in good dialogue. There are many other examples from Noddings book which are represented in this movie but this is the one which stood out to me the most

References

Noddings, Nel. Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics & Moral Education. Berkeley: University of California, 2003. Print.
The Class. Dir. Laurent Cantet. Haut Et Court, 2008. DVD.