Competency 1: Engaging Students’ Humanity

Understanding

What does it mean to Engage our Students’ Humanity? Consider for a moment an educational space where students can show up holistically and find an outlet to explore and express all of their humanity. What might that space look, sound, and feel like? What does it mean to humanize a school system in which education is “defined in terms of quantitative test scores and career readiness,” as Paul Emerich France writes? How do we emphasize qualitative connections with people and course content that can lead to rich exploration and learning, and that encourages young people to connect with themselves, their peers, their life and future?

Reflect/Contribute: Reflect again on the teacher or adult who most directly engaged you as a human being. Based on that experience, and your own experience teaching,

A fourteen-year-old girl shared the content of her river—a life journey marked by one overwhelming tragedy after another. The class listened with rapt attention and in wonder as this girl described repeated loss, neglect, depression, and despair, while radiating positivity and openness, with no sense of self-pity or victimization.

When she finished speaking, someone asked, “How is it that you’re describing a journey that has had so much pain and suffering, and yet you are expressing lightness and happiness as you’re sharing this with us?” Without hesitation she replied, “At one point I realized I had to hold onto who I was, otherwise these things that were happening to me were going to turn me into someone I did not want to be.

For this brave teenager, an authentic sense of who she was deep down became a source of strength for dealing with life’s adversity and overwhelming traumatic experiences, enabling her to be the author of her own life and to see her future in a positive light.

A teen who is not connected to who they are is more likely to be tempted to project a false image of themselves and get caught up in the dark side of social media, while a teen who has an authentic sense of themselves will be less drawn to do that. If we engage teens to define who they are only by the “parts,” we risk reducing their humanity to a self-image, a set of labels, or an adopted role. This fixed self-concept can easily crumble when faced with life’s challenges, potentially resulting in depression and other forms of mental distress. In contrast, an authentic identity that emerges from students’ humanity holds the most promise for self and for society. It serves as a foundation for wholesome character and citizenry to develop and stabilize, enabling them to navigate their lives with resilience and inspiration.

Here we explore how to make room for students’ core or whole self, not just the self that is defined by parts; to help them connect with their authentic selves.

Of course, to do this, we can also include the parts — while knowing that the parts are not the whole picture. They can serve as doorways into the whole self: the part of the student that is able to express those parts, hold complexity, and grapple with how all of it adds up to “who I am.”

Reflect/Contribute: Does this distinction between parts of the self and the core self resonate with your experience? If so, how would you describe the core of who you are? (Your response

Learn: See what other teachers say (coming soon)