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Examples of Caring Behavior
Adapted from Taking Center Stage, California Department of Education, 2001, pp. 115, 116.
Caring relationships within the school setting are expressed in multiple ways. The following suggestions represent only a partial list of possibilities. Caring is evident when students:
- Are affirmed as worthy individuals and assigned responsibilities that match their maturing levels of ability and independence. They are allowed to make decisions that fit their age, needs, and interests.
- Are helped to fully participate in their classes—to achieve a sense of belonging—through learning experiences that emphasize opportunities for recognition based on academic achievement and citizenship.
- Understand that their teachers are committed to helping them achieve academic success and that individual help is available for each student.
- Are provided full information about standards and academic performance levels and the ways in which their work will be evaluated. They are partners in their education and are able to monitor their own progress.
- Have access to a mentorship experience with at least one teacher or other significant adult. These experiences are long term, preferably during the entire time students are enrolled in their present school. Mentoring experiences are never forced and can be altered as appropriate.
- Are corrected or disciplined without being shamed, abused, or confused. They know that adults will make reasonable allowances for mistakes without personal condemnation. They also know that teachers will concentrate more on what is done well than to dwell on past failures.
- Are given ways to help themselves by helping others, taking on such service-learning roles as teacher assistants, cross-age tutors, and community volunteers (see Recommendation 5 — Relationships).
- Can express what they feel, believe, and value. They can talk things out with their teachers and peers without being ignored, afraid, or ashamed. They learn essential interpersonal communication skills that emphasize respect for the feelings and beliefs of others.
- Are helped to learn that caring relationships are a two-way process and that caring for others often leads to being cared for in return.
- Are contacted in person by a teacher or counselor when absences occur. They are made to feel that their presence in school is important and that their success is something that the entire faculty cares about.
- Experience early identification and help when their grades decline. They receive sympathetic assistance and encouragement in working out personal problems. Academic “bungee cords” are readily available to help them in times of crisis, and they know how to access them.
- Have something to believe in and work for because adults live their ideals before them.
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