Spiritual leaders care

Spiritual leaders care. As Dr. Nel Noddings teaches us, though, there is a difference between "care about" and "care for."

Social justice and achievement gap and multicultural education are currently three very hot topics in the education field. They have even extended to a larger field. The whole nation (and even other nations!) has entered into the discussion. Just entering one of them as a "google search" will bring up thousands of entries on the topic. The terms are discussed in universities, in the newspaper, on TV news programs, on talk radio, at school board meetings, in churches, in political circles, and even at family gatherings. Books and articles galore have been written about them. There are numerous websites--and even "blogs"--that focus on them. Task forces have been formed to study the issues and make recommendations.

There are obviously many who "care about" these three issues, including how they relate to one another. Yet, not much has changed. Why?

The late Dr. Ronald Edmonds from Harvard University said almost thirty years ago:

We can, whenever and wherever we choose, successfully
teach all children whose schooling is of interest to us. We
already know more than we need to do that. Whether or
not we do it must finally depend on how we feel about the
fact that we haven’t so far.

Edmonds, R. R. "Effective Schools for the Urban Poor." Educational Leadership 37 (1979): 15-27.

I would add that we haven't gone past the "care about" to the "care for." We, as individuals and as communities, haven't committed ourselves to implement the solutions to what we say we "care about." Those who have moved from "care about" to "care for" are the ones who are making or who have made the difference.--- people like Salome El-Thomas, Erin Gruwell, Ron Clark, Jaime Escalante, Hector Montenegro, etc.