A SENSE OF CARING AND CONNECTION

A SENSE OF CARING AND CONNECTION

Students’ feeling and attitudes about school are linked to teachers. Wheter they have positive or negative associations with school is primarly based on and directly related to their experience with teachers.

Higher standards, more effective teaching techniques, better account-ability, clearer goals all may be necessary, but they are not likely to be sufficient. If students have teachers who care about them, expect much from them, and communicate a love of knowledge, the students will respond in kind. But all too often, the teens say, teachers appear to be uninterested, unwilling to challenge, and indifferent to the subjects they teach.

More attentive to students’ thoughts and feelings teachers will be in a better position to facilitate student motivation and engagement: As teachers learn more about how students think and feel, they will be able to create classes where students have fun because they are engaged in learning in diverse, purposeful, and meaningful ways.

Clearly, education consists of more than test scores and academic achievement, but even the goal of academic excellence will be compromised if feeling cared about is not an integral part of students’ school experience. As Nel Noddings (1995) states, “We should want more from our educational efforts than adequate academic achievement. But we will not achieve even that meager success unless our children believe that they themselves are cared for and learn to care for others.”