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Celebrating Daily Care Routines
August 2, 2023
My contention is, first, that we should want more from our educational efforts than adequate academic achievement and, second, that we will not achieve even that meager success unless our children believe that they themselves are cared for and learn to care for others.
-Nel Noddings (1929-2022), American educator, writer, philosopher
-Nel Noddings (1929-2022), American educator, writer, philosopher
Carol Garboden Murray, in her acclaimed book, Illuminating Care: The Pedagogy of Care in Early Childhood Communities, writes, “Imagine the difference between the early childhood teacher who treats care as drudgery – and the one who treats care as education and honors care as an intellectual exchange.”
She explains how daily care tasks (diapering, dressing, resting, eating together…) are often mistakenly devalued instead of being honored. “Care is the making of humans. Care is the first lesson of love, connection and dependency. Care rituals demonstrate quintessential whole person learning – the integration of mind, body, heart and soul.”
Rae Pica, author of What If We Taught the Way Children Learn?, asserts that Carol Garboden Murray “calls on us to have the courage to challenge the notion that care is subordinate to education.”
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Comments (2)
Displaying All 2 CommentsEugene, OR, United States
Indeed, Francis. It's one of Carol's messages as well. I think we need to continually hone our skills to advocate - and never apologize - for ourselves and our field. That includes not justifying our work only based on what those outside the field value most, but helping those outside the field truly understand the artful, intuitive, bodily practice of prioritizing care and why that's so foundational to all that follows.
University of Phoenix/ Red Rocks Community College
Denver, Colorado, United States
This idea is not only critical for our deep understanding of how young children grow, develop, learn, and form important human relationships, but it's critical to understand if we are ever going to be respected the same way k-12 education is. Placing education at a higher value than care justifies the horrible pay and benefits of our field, and the lack of respect for people caring for infants and young children by our society.
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