Foreword by Alexs Pate
In my early days of working with educators to introduce the concepts of the Innocent Classroom, I became convinced that the world of education was divided into two groups of leaders: those who believed that curriculum and pedagogy were sufficient to provide a quality education, and those who believed that relationships with students were the basis for success in the classroom. Even in districts and schools where relationships were a part of school culture, academic and behavioral results were often disconnected from the health and quality of the relationships between teachers and students.
It does my heart good to see so many educators now articulating the necessity of building relationships with students and, for me, with Black, Brown, and Indigenous children, in ways that welcome and ignite the academic fire lurking in our children's reality.
Before anything and throughout everything, we should know the children we teach.
Books like Powerful Student Care move us further into understanding how to accomplish this rather delicate and difficult task. Grant Chandler and Kathleen Budge offer a wonderful blueprint to get us going. They outline the details of the challenge and new approaches to achieving the goal of reaching the powerful place where we know the children we teach well enough to understand and respond to them appropriately.
We educators are often surprised when we find ourselves struggling to know each of our students well enough to lead them, to influence them, to teach them. Many of us believe the deep compassion and commitment we bring to school should be enough to help us accomplish these goals. But compassion and commitment are natural qualities for educators, and, in our contemporary culture, they are often not enough. Knowing the children in a classroom requires more than our individual histories have taught us.
The most beautiful thing to watch is an educator who has done the work and begins to engage with their students in a way that reflects their understanding of those students. It often requires more than the innate quality of caring. It is a skill, one that invites exploration.
This book provides that exploration through Powerful Student Care: a "humanizing approach to education that allows for introspection and reflection; hones our capacity to observe, question, and analyze information; and guides us to use our professional expertise to deeply know each child and predict, plan for, and respond to collective and individual interests and needs." Indeed, in this book you will be asked to go on an allegorical journey to a place the authors call The Harbor. Along the way, you will discover and experience the elements and ways of thinking that will make your trip successful. When you've arrived at your destination, you'll know you've engaged in the right amount of reflection and preparation to know your students better.
The authors believe—as do I—that we expend too much energy trying to manage our students and not enough trying to understand their realities and constructing environments that allow them to drop the barriers that make it more difficult for them to learn. Powerful Student Care walks you through an incisive and well-thought-out progression from the rationale and research behind Powerful Student Care to detailed case studies to exercises that invite you to reflect on and respond to classroom scenarios.
I am particularly moved by the authors' discussion about expectations of student performance. In the work that we do, it is critical that teachers not assume that poor performance stems from a lack of interest or desire. When we know our students well, it is easier to understand poor performance in relation to the challenges a student may be facing both inside and outside the school. In many ways, this insight is the goal of every educator who prioritizes relationship, because once we know some of the reasons a child is underperforming, we are able to change that dynamic in our classrooms. To do so, we have to believe our children want to perform well and would do so under different circumstances. As the authors tell us, "Believing in our students' innate intention to do well isn't just something we should do; it is something we must do."
Altogether, this book is a sharp, articulate conversation about developing relationships with students, with plenty of tools to plan and engage. Any educator who is committed to their students' continued growth will find in Powerful Student Care a treasure befitting the journey.
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