Response 4: Do Teachers Really Care About Education?

The article I read and am currently responding to is called Caring and Education. In it the author writes about whether or not teachers really care about their students and education. Throughout my life I have had all kinds of teachers. Some I really liked, and some I really didn't. I had teachers's that were extremely strict but caring and then I had some teacher's that were very leniant and didn't seem to care about much at all.

All the way from elementary school up to my senior year of high school I constantly heard from all my classmates complaints about our teachers. I heard everything from how mean they were, how they were too strict, gave too much homework, and how they didn't care at all. Many students thought they were there just because they had to be and all they cared about was making their money and not teaching the students anything. Then there were those few teachers that you never heard a single bad word about and all the students seemed to love. The one who you could joke around with, was pretty leniant, and was almost like an older friend to the students.

But do teachers really care? The truth is that not all truly do. Some would argue that the strict ones don't care, they just hate their job and take it out by providing tons of work and long boring lectures and harsh rules. On the other hand though, some would say the stricter the teacher is means they care more because they are actually trying to teach and discipline you. These people would also probably agree that teachers who don't have as many rules and allow students to get away with more don't really care about the students well being and actually teaching them. They would rather just relax and let the kids do whatever. Usually though, these teachers are considered to be the favorites by students.

I believe that a lot of kids simply don't care about school or getting their education at all. This can lead to teachers not caring, because the students won't listen, pay attention, and either disrupt class, act out, or just don't do any work. I couldn't tell you how many kids I would see everyday doing one or more of these things and the teacher just got fed up with it and eventually seemed to quit trying to help them. Or "Sometimes the conditions of schooling are so bad that teachers who want to care and students who want to be cared for cannot form the kind of relations we would properly label caring." states http://www.infed.org/.

The site also goes on to suggest ways in which to help the teachers care more about the students. Some suggestions include more time together, smaller class sizes, and teaching more of what children are interested in then what the normal cirriculum. So do teachers really care? There will always be those teachers who just teach because they can and not necessarily for the benefit of the students. But for the most part I think teachers today really do care about their students.



http://www.infed.org/biblio/noddings_caring_in_education.htm