Caring and Relationships in Education

The education philosopher and writer Nel Noddings asserts that “schools should encourage the development of all aspects of whole persons: their intellectual, moral, social, aesthetic, emotional, physical and spiritual capacities.”  One would have to agree with this view, even if only because children spend a majority of their waking hours in school.  If school doesn’t attend to their development as “whole persons,” then when are they to be tended to?  In the brief morning rush to get dressed, eat and get everyone to school and work?  Or the precious little time children might have to themselves between extra-curricular activities, homework and dinner?  Or if a student isn’t so lucky, they may be more concerned with food and shelter, rather than developing any personal aspects of themselves. 

This view of education would require schools to put the care of children first (rather than their education), how they exist now, not in the way they “should” exist in a theoretical future.  It would also require the system to assist students in discovering what they are actually good at and what they enjoy doing, which one could argue is essential to happiness.  However, this is not the prominent view of education in the United States.  Politicians have argued for every student being “college ready,” but many jobs essential to our society don’t require a college degree.  These jobs are considered “unskilled work” however, from my experience, there is no such thing as “unskilled work.”  As a society, we need people to pick up trash, keep our infrastructure intact, and keep streets and buildings clean.  These jobs don’t require a college degree, but we should be grateful for those who perform these tasks.  Unfortunately, by and large, we are not. 

This expectation that college is the only way has led to misappropriated academic demands on teachers and students that mandate everyone use the same curriculum, without thought to individual aptitudes or interests.  Many of these curriculum purport to be “teacher proof,” meaning they take the individual teachers out of the education “equation.”  Without teachers there can be no teacher-student relation, there is only content and student.  But if Noddings’ assertion that “every human life starts in relation, and it is through relations that a human individual emerges,” then one must wonder what will emerge from this focus on results and accountability.  And if it’s true that individuals emerge through their relations, then it must follow that this is how communities and whole cultures develop, But, what happens to communities when relationships are severed in the name of test scores?  A feeling of isolation and separation from fellow humans results.  Eventually, a feeling of separation from one’s self will occur because importance has continuously been placed on test results rather than on the development of one’s inner world, the inner world that a person needs in order to cultivate the perseverance it takes to do anything worthwhile.