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!