Week 11: Give [Care] & Take [Care]
My school is currently engaging in an “empowerment” school grant writing process where we are competing for a pool of money with other schools from across the district and state. Because we are chronically “low-performing” we are candidates for this opportunity. Our principal has created a collaborative process for us to use when creating the grant proposal, and we have to vote as a staff on the final product in order to approve the plan.
I have been racking my brain to think of the “it” since we found out about the grant. The sky is the limit in terms of what we are able to propose. We have been doing a lot of work around “trauma-informed” teaching, and while I find the framework useful, I have always felt that it lacks a level of systemic analysis that questions WHY and HOW these structures that oppress our communities came to be and how they are reproduced and reinforced every day.
I have always felt that the nonexistent conversation about white supremacy and its role in shaping urban education has been a great disservice to our students and families. I am wondering, after reading Ginwright’s article, if the “it” is critical inquiry healing groups. We know that being kind and supportive of students, is not enough and that an ethic of care, while critical to the work, will not suffice unless we infuse it with a politicized and critical analysis. As Eli noted, we have a Serious job (capital S), and it is our responsibility not only to invest in relationships, but to shift the cultures at our schools to become a there-is-a-snack-if-you-need-a-snack environment. Ginwright says that care facilitates healing, and it is care that must be our point of departure. Care must be the foundation of the work that we do, and we have to work together not only to cultivate an ethic of care within ourselves and each other, but we must also build STRUCTURES and SYSTEMS with care at their core.
This work is critical in education and movement work, and this article, Moving Beyond the Self-Care Bubble Bath, provides some helpful insight.
Thanks for your post and for sharing that article. (The link didn't work for me, but I found it. Here is another try: https://www.autostraddle.com/on-being-a-burden-whats-missing-from-the-conversation-around-self-care-385525/) Reading it brings me back to Sunaura Taylor and Judith Butler's walk and the question of what a caring society might look like? And like you say, how can we advocate for self-care, care for others, and also systems, structures, policies, and cultures that are caring?
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder if we're supposed to be in a mix of conflict at all times. When we talk about what a caring society looks like how would we know what this means without knowing its absence? I don't mean to wax philosophical, but it's difficult for me to ignore the strong relationship between fighting what is present and accepting what is present. These are often opposing beliefs, beliefs that serve in stark opposition to our own; when that opposition is met with the same strength and belief that what we're doing, what we're promoting, what we're saying is the right thing what compromise is there other than acceptance?
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