Andrea Gerrits

I believe that every child is wonderfully made in the image of God. Despite the problems
of the world and social differences, all students have the right to a safe learning environment. I
come into the classroom with my own culture and my own belief system which includes Christ.
However, depending on where I teach, I may not be able to express my beliefs. Therefore, my
actions must speak when my words can not. I am a strong believer in the power of love. Love
and compassion never go to waste, even if it seems like a student just does not care or is
unphased by your words. If there are 10 miles to go till you reach the heart of the student, the 2
feet you made today count. Someone pushed that students 10 miles, and might still be pushing
them further down into a hole. So, it is the job of other influencers to rebuild that child's self-
esteem, confidence, and knowledge. Every bit of love gets that person where they need to be
because love never hurts. Everything a teacher says and does impacts their students in different
ways, and loving them will bring them closer to where they should be, wherever that place
happens to be.
There are a lot of different ways to love and care for someone through. Some students
need constant reassurance they are good enough. Other students need a reality check to know
they do not own you, and they are not allowed to disrespect anyone including other students.
Each student needs a different type of care, and figuring out what they need will take some time
and commitment. I would like to think of caring as less of an obligation and more as a privilege.
Caring for others means you have the opportunity to shape the person they become. A Bible
verse I greatly value is 1 Peter 4:8, which says “Above all else love each other deeply”. If I teach
in a public school, there are still christian values I can teach:
“Honesty, respect for individuals, respect for those in authority, self- control,
caring for those in need, tolerance, justice, caring for the environment, and stewardship of
resources are Christian values. But they are also commonly accepted standards of people
of many different beliefs” (Stronks 1998, p. 34).
I'm going to be very tired at the end of a caring day, I know that full well. However, if one
student takes something out of my care and brings it to another person, I think I will be just fine
with my emotional exhaustion.
So far, my favorite approach to education is Care. For History, care can be implemented
easily into almost every lesson plan rather than Math or Science. History is about experiencing
other cultures and understanding the roots of the lives we live today. We talked a bit in class
about humanization, and how to make students understand people from a different perspective.
The humanity and emotion of history makes caring an important factor, both in respecting the
people of the past, and other students who are different from oneself. If I teach my students to
care about the people that brought them here today, they may be able to better care for the other
people they do not know. With Social Studies, students can be exposed to social issues and
injustices that they may not have known about. This presents the opportunity for empathy and
compassion in a world that seems to be lacking. It can make a student think deeply about their
place in society versus impoverished students who die of malnutrition. Caring is thinking about
people in a war-ridden country where poverty and starvation are daily concerns. Thinking about
these people as human beings with families, religions, and cultures humanizes them. This
humanization can change the way a person views an issue. Instead of jumping to conclusions,
students may better understand and respect the choices others have made. It is hard to understand
why people do things when we know nothing about their history or situation. By exposing
students to problems and taking the sweetness out of a sugar-coated past, the next generation
might care about immigrants rather than despise them, respect Native American Traditions
instead of mock them, and have empathy for African Americans who still struggle from Racial
disparities due to their place in society 150 years ago. Caring takes a lot of energy though, but
teaching students to care all the time, might just make the act of care second nature instead of a
forced practice. Caring means both caring for your students and teaching them to care for each
other.
Care can also be shown in the lessons taught. Teaching a lesson based on injustice can
focus students on the past to the present, words to deeds, and help the student rethink the way the
view issues (What If Leaning 2018). If a lesson is about 9/11, I can easily relate to the criminals
as Muslim Terrorists and give more examples of how Muslims are bad people and their religion
supports violence and sexism. But, this would not be showing care to people that are of the
Muslim faith or of Arabic descent. This lesson would give my students the impression that I do
not like Muslims or respect their religion, they should not either, and they now have twisted
historical knowledge about 9/11. However, if I based my lesson plan around radical groups
(KKK, Nazis, Al Qaeda), it would show students that multiple cultures have been susceptible to
radicalism. Instead of showing this one act of violence, I can show a history of violent acts and
expose the students to the racial disparity between press coverage of a Muslim terrorist attack
verses a Christian terrorist attack. I can show them pictures of a modern Muslim family, or
statistics about hate crimes. I could tie Religious history of how Muslim and Christian faiths both
have similar roots in Judaism. If teaching in a Christian school, I can talk about how all God’s
children are loved by Him, and how we are all equal under the eye of the Lord regardless of our
skin color or words we use to praise God. I could tie in that the Muslim faith and the Christian
faith are extremely similar in their core beliefs, but they are viewed as other because of their
geographical location, culture, and skin tone. This process of humanization brings understanding
and empathy to people of the Muslim faith. I have the choice to humanize groups as little or as
much as I want.
Middle schoolers are highly susceptible to the influences around them. They are forming
their own thoughts and need good influences to help them capture a holistic view of the world.
Offering a space where ideas can be presented in a compassionate and open way gives students a
chance to form opinions without having hate in their hearts or misinformation. With the exposure
of fake news and twisted forms of reality, I would like my students to question. I want them to
question what they are told and what they come into my classroom knowing and feeling. Each
student has a past, a heart, and chance. Knowing each of these variables in a student can change
the way you teach to them.
If my students are all ESL, I would take that into the way I explain things. If there is a
word I think might not be in their vocabulary, I can look it up the night before in their language
or take time to explain the term in class. This shows my students I want them to learn and I am
willing to put in the extra effort so they do not have to work as hard. Although I am not good at
other languages, if translating complex words for them into English makes them more interested
in my subject, I will do that every single night. Students who are not interested in learning
history can still learn to care; “Not all human beings are good at or interested in mathematics,
science or British literature. But all humans can be helped to lead lives of deep concern for
others, for the natural world and its creatures , and for the preservation of the human-made
world” (Noddings 2007). The odds that a student who hates history is going to fall in love with it
after my class are very slim, but falling in love with the earth, and finding deeper meaning in
themselves; there is a chance there. This leads back into the general knowledge of your students
and what the teachers expectations are for each of them. Knowing students may struggle with
tramas of their past would help a teacher show them better care. I want to get to know my
students. Even if that means re-reading a 100 word biography of every student for two weeks, by
the end, I will know every students name and at least a little something about them. If I expect
them to listen to me and know me, I think it I should listen to them and know them. This level of
care spreads the net wide, casting a standard of my knowledge of students evenly across the
class.
When looking at the two main practices of teaching we learned about in class, I think
Constructivism is better for a history classroom but Behavioralism can still be used. Because
history is thinking critically about the past and forming ideas based on evidence, students should
be able to come up with their own thoughts and be able to express them in class. Learning some
dates, facts, and names are important though. It is important for students to have a base
knowledge which they can reference when thinking of big picture ideas. For example, slavery
was abolished in 1865, a little more than 150 years ago. If students thought slavery was
abolished in 1600, they may distance themselves from the problem more then they have the right
to. In 1965, about 50 years ago, African Americans were still fighting for their right to vote. Not
knowing these time frames would take away from students ability to think about the big picture
and engage critically in social issues.
Overall, caring is about putting time into your students and lessons. If a teacher knows
their students, the students will be more likely to listen, learn, and engage with the topic. If
humanization is put into lesson plans, the students will have to grapple with their own beliefs
about a topic and may come to the realization they could be wrong about history. Care is a
essential part of the Bible, and teaching it to the next generation, could have amazing side
effects.