The one-caring as teacher Nodding “I do not assume roles unless I become an actor” (Nodding) Mother is not a role very special relation prototypical relation Teacher is not a role more specialized relation caring relation

she receives not just the ‘response’ but the student. As a teacher, I am, first, one-caring… When a teacher asks a question in class and a student responds, she receives not just the ‘response’ but the student.

What the student says matters, whether it is right or wrong, and I probe gently for clarification, interpretation, contribution. I don’t look for the answer but the involvement of the cared-for The student is infinitely more important than the subject matter (It is not about French as much as it is about helping the student learn French).  

Buber suggests: “The role of the teacher is just this: to influence When, out of intrinsic interest or trust and admiration for the teacher, the student does embrace an objective, he may need help in attaining it. The teacher as one-caring, meets the students directly but not equally.” (position of respect for the projects of the other)

“The one-caring as a teacher has two major tasks: To stretch the student’s world by presenting an effective selection of that world with which he is in contact, and To work cooperatively with the student in his struggle toward competence in that world. But her task as one-caring has higher priority than either of these. First and foremost, she must nurture the student’s ethical ideal.”(p.178)  

Dr. Martinsen wrote: “Two main points from that reading that I would think important, 1.) The purpose of education is what? Caring.... Notice, that's not the means by which we educate, it is the GOAL of education AND the means by which we educate. Why is that an important statement regardless of whether or not you agree with it. My two cents, it raises the critical question of why we do what we do What's first: French or fostering ethics? 2.) How does one care? “

“Besides engaging the student in dialogue, the teacher also provides a model. To support her students as ones-caring, she must show them herself as one-caring…”

If she confront a student who is cheating, she may begin by saying: ‘I know you want to do well, … attributing the best possible motive to him, and she then proceeds to explain, …why she cannot allow him to cheat. …Everything we do, then as teachers, has moral overtones. Through dialogues, modeling, the provision of practice, and the attribution of best motive, the one-caring as teacher nurtures the ethical ideal. …She meets him (the student) as he is and finds something admirable and, as a result, he may find the strength to become even more admirable. He is confirmed.

…I do not need to establish a deep, lasting, time-consuming relationship with every student… (problems with student numbers, multiple subjects taught by teachers, etc.)

is an attempt at inclusion on the part of the student… …There is another in the caring relation. The student also contributes to caring. The one form of mutuality that is excluded from the teacher-student relation is an attempt at inclusion on the part of the student… within the teacher-student relation; his caring is different from that of the teacher. The student has his greatest effect on the relationship as the one cared-for. If he perceives the teacher’s caring and responds to it, he is giving the teacher what she needs most to continue to care. As the infant rewards his caring mother with smiles and wiggles, the student rewards his teacher with responsiveness: with questions, efforts, comment, and cooperation.

…Many of our schools are in what might be called a crisis of caring. Both students and teachers are brutally attacked verbally and physically…   Many urban teachers are suffering symptoms of battle fatigue and “burn-out”. …No matter what they do, it seems, their efforts are not perceived as caring. They themselves are perceived as the enemy, as natural targets for resistance.

The cared-for is essential to the relation. What the cared-for contributes to the relation is a responsiveness that completes the caring

“What is the author recommending? That schools and teaching be redesigned so that caring has a chance to be initiated in the one-caring and completed in the cared-for … … a school cannot be engrossed in anyone or anything. But a school can be deliberately designed to support caring and caring individuals, and this is what an ethic of caring suggests should be done”.