IntroductionThe future of humanity is in our hands.
When I had been teaching for a few years, one of my students, Shawn, passed away. Shawn's precious life was very short. He was only 4 when he joined our class community. He had a bit of an elfin face and a tall, lanky body for a child his age. He was shy—very shy. He seemed to carry the weight of the world on his tiny shoulders at times, but at other times his toothy smile would light up his face and our entire classroom. Though this was a community of mostly 3- and 4-year-olds, there were also a few 5-year-olds, including Shawn's brother. This was the first preschool class in our district: It was the mid-1980s, and new federal legislation required states to begin educating students with disabilities at age 3. All the students in my class were identified as having developmental delays. Shawn died of an unidentified infection. He was absent from class on the Thursday before his death. When I returned to class on Monday, I was called to the principal's office, where she explained that he had passed away in the local hospital over the weekend. The principal asked me if I had ever been worried about Shawn's safety or well-being. At first, I didn't understand what she was asking. She explained that she was just wondering if Shawn had been neglected. I replied, "No, I had never seen signs of neglect." As I think about that question now, I wonder if she asked it because Shawn's parents were poor. I had had several interactions with Shawn's parents and was confident they loved both their sons and did all they could to care for them. I changed as a person and teacher that year. I became more profoundly aware of the preciousness of life—each person's life. There were empty spaces in our community after Shawn died: the physical space—his cubby, his coat hook, his circle on the rug—and the felt space—the sadness that came from the simple absence of his distinctive and irreplaceable presence. I remember reading Leo Buscaglia's (1982) The Fall of Freddie the Leaf: A Story of Life for All Ages to help us all talk about Shawn's death—a tall order for adults, not to mention preschoolers. I met Dominique in my ninth year of teaching, when I moved from a small district to a larger urban one. I had been charged with building both a French program and a debate/forensics program in my high school. Dominique was a sophomore when I began my new post. She lived in what she called the "projects"—an apartment complex for low-income residents—with her grandmother. Dominique was in my second-year French class. The school had scheduled forensics (competitive public speaking) into my second-semester schedule, and it was my job to populate it. When I met Dominique that fall, she seemed like a typical sophomore in this new school I was getting to know. Then one day, out of nowhere, she announced that she loved my class because she was "learning to speak French, but learning more about life." As I learned more about this young woman, I discovered that she desperately wanted to be successful in school. She had a tough exterior and a heart of gold. I tended to eat lunch in my classroom, as this was a great quiet time to get work done. One day while I was in there at lunchtime, Dominique knocked on the door and asked if she could eat in my room, as she was not a fan of eating in the cafeteria. One day became two, which became three, then other students joined, and soon a small group of students was eating lunch every day in my room. So it was that my coveted quiet work time faded into oblivion. From multiple conversations, I learned that Dominique was from Chicago. Her mother still lived there, but she was currently living with "Granny." She spoke well of her mother; there was no conflict between them. As I think back now, almost 20 years later, I believe she lived with her grandmother because her family felt it would be better for her to go to school outside Chicago, and this way she could also help take care of Granny, who had been living alone. A few months into the school year, Dominique became a driving force on the forensics team, which she helped to quickly grow from 0 to 45 members and for which she served as the team's first president. Two years later, Dominique was competing nationally and ranked in the top 20 for her event. The young, uncertain lady I'd met as a sophomore had become a confident student, performer, and leader. She just needed a gentle nudge and someone to value and believe in her while helping her build some important skills along the way. I will forever remember the team's first tournament in the winter of Dominique's sophomore year. There were about 500 students in the auditorium, and other than the students on our team, no one looked like Dominique. She looked around, eyes wide open and on high alert. She walked up to me and said, "Mr. Chandler, do you realize that we are the only Black students here?" I replied, "Of course I do, Dominique. Just go out there and wow them. Make sure they remember you were here." I often wonder what Dominique's experiences would have been if she hadn't found that safe place in which to belong. And I often think about how much I've learned about being a human being from her and the many other Dominiques I've had the privilege to know. Dominique taught me the importance of extending humanity and dignity within the educational experience. She and others taught me to understand their experiences as Black students in the Midwest as I never had before, because I couldn't understand until they shared those experiences with me, knowing that I wanted to engage with and learn from them. Powerful Student Care: The Time Has ComeWhen we began to write this book, we reflected on the pivotal events in our careers that put us in intimate touch with the existential fact that each student is distinctive and irreplaceable—indeed, that we are all distinctive and irreplaceable. For Kathleen, Shawn's death was certainly one of those events. For Grant, Dominique's story demonstrates the potency of schools and teachers to cultivate students' talents and aspirations, nurture their self-worth, and uphold their dignity. At the time that we started writing Powerful Student Care, educators throughout the United States had just survived 18 months of pandemic schooling due to COVID-19. We hoped the 2021–2022 school year would bring us to the other side of the pandemic, but such was not the case. Educating children during a global pandemic is not something educators signed up for or even trained for. In addition to making miraculous changes to our pedagogy on a dime, finding ways to support students who missed hours of invaluable learning time, covering for absent colleagues, and caring for (and fearing for) our health and that of our families, many of us grieved the loss of grandparents, parents, spouses, children, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors, colleagues, and students. Moreover, many of us could not help but be blinded by the spotlight the pandemic shone on the inequities in our world. What shall we do with all that we have experienced in these unprecedented times? Can the flexibility and resiliency we have demonstrated in the chaos of pandemic schooling give us the confidence and courage to see that we don't have to rely on the way we've always done things in schools? Can it give us the wisdom to commit to not do things the way we have always done them? Might our personal and collective losses awaken us to the preciousness and uniqueness of each human life? And out of that awakening, might we tap back into the moral reasons we became educators by co-creating, with our students, new ways of being together that heal us and sustain us? We are convinced that the answer to these questions is yes, and that the time has come to embrace Powerful Student Care. What Is Powerful Student Care?We developed Powerful Student Care (PSC) over nearly a decade of observing and interacting with teachers and principals who were working diligently to solve problems within their schools. Part of a broader continuous improvement framework, PSC is focused on demonstrating to each student that they are both distinctive and irreplaceable. Distinctive and IrreplaceableWhen we were developing PSC, we chose the words distinctive and irreplaceable very carefully. We were thinking, "What would it mean if we were to eliminate the alienation so many students experience in school every day? What would we want students to believe about themselves and their peers?" To be distinctive is to be unique—to be unlike any other. We want students and educators to celebrate the beauty and uniqueness of each individual. We want individuals to see and to value one another's individual identities and to recognize each soul as invaluable and irreplaceable. Think about the word irreplaceable for a moment. When we truly believe someone is irreplaceable, we ascribe tremendous value to that person. They are treasured. They are cherished. They are of infinite importance because there is no other just like them. Envision how very different our world would be if we actually treated one another as though we were each irreplaceable. There is great power in this idea. Synonyms for power include capacity, capability, competence, authority, potential, and skill. Just imagine the motivation and the confidence of students and educators who understand themselves and others to be both distinctive and irreplaceable. What decisions might we make differently if we could see and celebrate one another in this way? How might this awareness of the preciousness of each person's life change the way we all experience school? From All to EachPowerful Student Care realigns the conversation from a focus on all students to a focus on each student. Of course, we want all our kids to succeed, to be well-behaved, to learn, and to become happy and productive adults. But it is difficult to visualize all when you're a teacher or principal in a building of several hundred (or more) students. Who are we really talking about? We often lose sight of all and think about most instead. It is not unusual to hear educators say it's impossible to reach 100 percent of students, so we should be satisfied with reaching the vast majority. What's worse, it's very difficult to picture the faces of all. Individual identities get lost in the semantics of all. Now consider the word each. What's required of us to consider each student? Certainly, each implies all, but it does so from the singular rather than the collective plural. Each student: What's their name? How do they identify themselves? Who are they as a unique soul? What do they bring to the table? It's difficult to talk about each student without referring to them by name. And when we think about each student by name, we can't help but visualize their face, their smile, their beautiful eyes, their challenges, their successes, the people who love and care about them, and their dreams. Nkenge is in 3rd grade and wants to be an Olympian just like Simone Biles. Mohammed is in 1st grade and wants to race cars. Olivia, a struggling 5th grader, dreams of being a scientist. Her uncle died of COVID-19 and she wants to eliminate future pandemics from the world. What Does Powerful Student Care Ask of Us?We want each student to feel they are both distinctive and irreplaceable, and we know such a feeling comes about (or fails to materialize) as a direct result of their experiences within our schools and classrooms, with their peers, and with their teachers. In this book, we ask you to choose your course—to think about and decide whether or not to respond to the call of PSC. If you respond to the call, you are asked to rip to shreds anything that dehumanizes students or disregards or disrespects their identity, talents, or potential. When you choose to nurture the infinite potential in each child, there is no way around dismantling any practices or structures that result in limitations, inequities, and injustices. What Does Powerful Student Care Do for Us?Powerful Student Care addresses some practical problems educators deal with daily. But more than that, it leads to a sense of self-worth and dignity that comes with educating our students in a humanizing way. Some might call PSC utopian, but we are confident that what we envision is possible. Indeed, that's why we wrote this book. Powerful Student Care calls our attention to the vital importance of our work as educators and to appreciating that the success of our efforts (or lack thereof) profoundly impacts the actual life of each student we serve. It calls us to act every day with the knowledge that what we do is greater than test scores or reading levels. It calls us to recognize that our work is a matter of life and death for many students. Powerful Student Care calls us to contemplate the roles our professional expertise, intellect, and humanity play in upholding the humanity, dignity, and worth of each child in our care. Put simply, PSC is a way of being, a way of knowing, and a way of thinking. Our Humanity: A Way of BeingBy challenging practices and structures that demoralize and dehumanize students and educators, PSC allows us to bring the boundless beauty of humanity to the enterprise of schooling. Although it asks us to focus on each student, it is not an individualistic approach. In fact, such care is only possible in community with others. Therefore, at its core, PSC is about co-creating a sense of community with and among students—and this book is designed to support you in doing so. Community is about people, a feeling, a set of relationships, and the meeting of common needs (McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Simply filling a school or a classroom with students and educators does not make it a community; rather, schools and classrooms are the contexts in which a sense of community can flourish. In schools and classrooms where students experience a sense of community, mutual respect is fostered, individuals' needs and interests are met, and infinite human potential is unleashed. The Five Tenets of CommunityThe following five tenets of community are foundational to Powerful Student Care: Each student is welcomed to be a part of our community. Each student is a valued member of our community. Each student is here to do well. Each student is here to develop self-efficacy and agency. Each student is here to experience the joy of academic, social, and emotional learning.
When these tenets are lived in schools and classrooms, students feel welcomed and valued. They also come to understand that learning is not only about gaining academic skills, but also about joy. Buoyed by the knowledge that we, their teachers, presuppose that they come to school with the intention to do well, they develop self-efficacy and agency. Caring for students in these powerful ways helps them to see themselves as the distinctive and irreplaceable individuals they are and to appreciate that the same is true of their peers. (For a more detailed look at the five tenets of community central to Powerful Student Care, see Appendix A.) Our Expertise: A Way of KnowingIn conceptualizing Powerful Student Care, we have drawn ideas and strategies from a wide range of knowledge related to educational philosophy, cultural humility, belongingness, community building, trauma-sensitive practices, social-emotional learning, equity literacy, antiracism, cultural responsiveness, student voice, restorative justice, poverty and classism, Freirean thought, moral education, self-care, and antibias education. While embracing PSC will not make us experts in any of these fields of knowledge, it is intended to move us beyond traditionally siloed and sometimes deficit-oriented approaches to caring for students to one that embraces the infinite potential of each young life. The PSC approach does this by asking us to think about our professional expertise not as a set of discrete tools in a toolbox but, rather, as a woven cloth of theories and practices that help us support both each individual student and the community of students as a whole. (We elaborate on this way of knowing in Chapter 3.) Our Intellect: A Way of ThinkingTo provide our students with Powerful Student Care, we must commit to introspection and reflection on our beliefs, values, and life experiences. Deeply knowing who we are and who we bring into the classroom is critical. We do this by interrogating our mental models and the implicit biases that they inevitably contain. Too often, our unexamined biases serve as a barrier to educating students as the distinctive and irreplaceable people they are—particularly students of color, students who live in poverty, students who identify as LGBTQIA+, and students with disabilities. Drawing on the work of the Equal Justice Society, veteran teacher Shane Safir (2016) reminds us: Biased messages can be framed to speak to the unconscious. As they stack up, the brain uses rapid cognition to assess the humanity, threat, and worth of other human beings. More concretely, the prefrontal cortex lights up when we see someone as "highly human," but it fails to activate when we dehumanize people. (para. 4)
Powerful Student Care is a humanizing approach to education that allows for introspection and reflection; hones our capacity to observe, question, and analyze information; and guides us to use our professional expertise to deeply know each child and predict, plan for, and respond to collective and individual interests and needs. (These characteristics of PSC are discussed in greater detail in Chapter 4.) PSC draws inspiration from the philosophy of Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a Zulu word that means "humanity" and has been translated as "I am because you are" or "I am because we are." This single word acknowledges our common humanity—the universal bond we all share as humans. Here is how Desmond Tutu (1999) explains Ubuntu: A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed. (p. 31)
Ubuntu has been used as an informing philosophy in global diplomacy, social welfare, academic research, leadership and politics, social and criminal justice, education, and popular culture. As such, we see Ubuntu as a North Star for PSC, inspiring humanity in classrooms and schools. Who Should Read This Book?Although we wrote this book for educators working in any capacity in the school system, our focus is on implementation in classrooms and schools. We are confident that educators who are searching for a robust, compassionate way of thinking about their students and their own well-being, combined with a fierce means of shattering historical barriers to such well-being, will benefit from this book. Welcome to the Powerful Student Care Maritime InstituteThroughout this book, we elucidate the principles of Powerful Student Care using a maritime metaphor, including a learning voyage on the PSC Encounter. Our metaphor begins with the word harbor, conceptualizing it as both an action and a place. In the provision of Powerful Student Care, we harbor our students, providing shelter and protection. We also journey to "The Harbor"—a place of security and comfort. This is our final destination, where each student believes they are distinctive and irreplaceable. This book is divided into two levels. Level 1 (Chapters 1–4) focuses on the conceptual knowledge you need to provide Powerful Student Care to your students. Here you will participate in the PSC Maritime Institute to learn about the features of the model PSC Encounter, with its state-of-the art sails, navigational instruments, and safety devices, so that you will be familiar with how to use these features to sail your own PSC vessel. In Level 2 (Chapters 5–8) of the book, you set sail on the PSC Encounter. On board, you have an opportunity to conduct an in-depth exploration of each of the five ports of call—the tenets of community in Powerful Student Care (see Figure I.1)—en route to The Harbor. This learning voyage allows you to see the connection between the theory behind the tenets and examples of the tenets in practice. These intermediate stops provide a chance to observe PSC captains in action as they work to extend the tenets of PSC to their students. Shadowing other PSC captains who have learned or are in the process of learning to successfully steer their own PSC ships serves two purposes: (1) to provide an opportunity to deepen your understanding of each of the tenets and (2) to support you in beginning to form the habits of mind necessary to provide each student with Powerful Student Care. You will not witness the entire journey each captain has undertaken. However, you will observe Stewart and Meredith as they navigate stops at the first two ports of call and Nichelle and Jack as they navigate stops at the final three ports of call. Finally, you will watch Captain Londyn pull it all together as she navigates through each port of call on her way to The Harbor.
Figure I.1. The Map to The Harbor
We intend the PSC Maritime Institute to prepare you to use your new expertise and knowledge to skillfully navigate constantly changing waters, anticipating any trouble that might throw you off course. In these stormy seas, you will know how to uncover your mental models and explore the roles your intellect, expertise, and humanity play in your professional practice as you gain the navigational aptitude you need to capably steer your PSC ship. We hope that what you learn from us at the Institute will affirm your thinking and help you to envision yourself and your students together on this voyage. We anticipate that some of what you discover here may cause you to stop and question current or past practices, which could lead you to experience cognitive dissonance, unease, tension, or discomfort. Even so, we will challenge you to accept the call to courageously take each of your students to The Harbor, where they come to believe they are distinctive and irreplaceable. All else, we argue, is secondary. And so, your journey begins. Printed by for personal use only |
