Care in Education and Youth Development

Before looking at this reading "Nice Is Not Enough: Defining Caring for Students of Color" by Sonia Nieto, I always thought that care in education was just making sure that as an educator, you were trying your best be nice and accommodating to all your students regardless of their race, sex, life at home, etc. But after reading this piece, it made me realize that this may not be the case.

In this reading, Sonia Nieto says, "Caring within a structure plagued by inequality takes multiple forms, and at some moments when we think we are caring for students of color we actually are harming them because we are failing to counter a social structure that treats them unequally". I never really looked at care this way and I most certainly didn't think that we could be harming children by caring for them. Nieto explains that students of color are even being treated unequally by educators and she even uses the word racism. She uses the example of the students of color that speak another language at home. These students are being forced to read and write in English, which may be harder for them. Nieto even goes as far to say that "teachers participate in practices of racism", and that this occurs when teachers think they are being "nice". Teachers do this unintentionally by doing things like expecting less from their students of color, giving them easier assignments, etc. 

Overall, Nieto says that "an ethic of care means a combination of respect, admiration, and rigorous standards". I think this is a really good definition of care to explain to teachers because there is a clear difference between niceness and care and it's important to know the difference to prevent unintentional racism in education.

Click here for the reading!

I just wanted to start off by saying that I really enjoyed this article and I really learned a lot from it. It was eye-opening for me to see another point of view other than my own on what positive youth development is and what makes it beneficial and also what doesn't work. 

Treasure Map

    Ginwright and Cammarota’s critique of positive youth development is something that I never really thought about. They talk about two ways in which this model is limited. The first way they talk about is the idea that if you just focus on the youth's assets, then you're missing out on the social forces that are affecting their everyday lives. The second way they say this model is limited is because they are viewed through one dominant culture, which is the white middle-class culture. I honestly don't know how I feel about everything they talked about when it comes to whether the positive youth development model. I agree with what they are trying to say about how the youth and how they have the ability to change their communities while at the same time learning important life skills. I also agree that we should be viewing youth through not just one culture, but as many cultures as possible to ensure that every child feels heard. Even after reading all of these points that they make, I still feel like I resonate with the positive youth development approach best.

    The social justice approach incorporates many aspects of positive youth development but it is different because it goes a step further and addresses the social and economic forces that oppress young people. In this approach, adults guide the youth and help them advocate for transformative change.

                                                                                 

In this video, Kimberly Jones is very passionate about the topic of Black Lives Matter and she explains why people are doing what they are. She talks about the fact that everyone is lucky that black folks just want equality and not revenge. This really hits me hard and makes me sad that they have to fight so hard by having protests just to be seen as equal. This reminds me of the social justice approach because youth workers want youth to be advocates for what they believe in to make a change, just like Kimberly Jones is trying to do.

 

Click on the picture for a link to the article!

Quote #1: “Through a commitment to social justice, a deliberate practice of care, and a vision of learning in community, we prepare quality youth workers who are ready to lead with youth to make a better world”.