Celebrating Daily Care Routines

08/02/2023

Celebrating Daily Care Routines

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

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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