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.

Spiritual Leaders Care

Jeanetta Williams, Utah NAACP president, has a radio show on a KCPW, a public radio station. On one of her programs about a year ago she had some minority guests talking about education. At the time I was teaching a multicultural class at BYU (Brigham Young University). I called into the show and asked what they felt was the most important thing I could tell my students they needed to do to make a difference for diverse students. Overwhelming the answer was: CARE.

Hector Montenegro reinforced this principle at the recent UABE Conference when he stressed the importance that the #1 characteristic of an effective education leader is love for children---for ALL children. All includes those children who are poor, who don't speak English, who are from a different ethnic background, who have learning challenges, and even those who are belligerent.

That word ALL is even more critical when we consider the fact that our diverse student population is exploding while the diverse educator population is declining. The majority of those entering the education field are white middle class females. We obviously need to address this scenario, but while it is being addressed, all teachers, including white middle class, must have this #1 important characteristic--the ability to CARE for ALL children....OR they need to be strongly encouraged to leave the education field.

To CARE does not mean to feel sorry for the children. In fact, it means quite the opposite--which will be addressed in another blog.