Video Theory to Practice

Students Cannot Achieve Self-Actualization without Food and Shelter

If students’ circumstances outside of school preclude them from coming to school able to learn, then they cannot acquire higher understandings nor construct knowledge. For example, in the video, “Is Anybody Listening?” the students were worried about their families. Jose’s father lost his job; Evelyn’s parents were trying to live their American dream when the bank foreclosed on their house. Now twelve members of Evelyn’s family are living in a one bedroom house. Another student said that she found it impossible to concentrate at school because she was thinking about her mother struggling to support their family. The students’ teacher said yet other students had nothing to eat at home. Maslow would posit that these students’ basic needs (survival-food and shelter) were not being met, and therefore the students would not be able to achieve the level of self-actualization (understanding). As a teacher, I believe that I must give my students a space to voice their needs and lacks and to seek solutions so that they can achieve their higher needs. Further, it is my responsibility as a teacher to seek ways to ensure that students’ basic needs are met so that we are able to get to the work of higher needs. I will strive to be aware of the contextual aspects of my students’ lives and recognize when I can provide a basic need like food.

Caring Teachers Help Students Reach Their Goals

If students are given the opportunity to participate in a reciprocal relationship of reflective care with their teachers, then those students will be open to acquiring the understandings and dispositions necessary to reach their goals. In the video, “Youth Voices,” Eric pointed to a specific exemplar teacher who helped him to find a job so that Eric could feel as though he was helping his father. Eric was very concerned about his father working too hard, being deported, being unable to find work and getting too old for manual labor. Eric indicated that his teacher also shared with Eric his own struggles to overcome a leaner difference and succeed. He encouraged Eric to pursue his goal of serving in the military and then working as a cop. The teacher specifically did so to show Eric that he had options for attending to his father’s needs, which the teacher could see were of paramount importance to Eric. Nel Noddings would say that the caring relationship between the teacher and the student and subsequent interactions had engendered a trust that acted as a powerful force for that teacher to use to show his student that there were viable, real options for him to achieve his goal. Without that relationship, the student would not have trusted in the advice and the teacher would have been unable to act as a significant influence in his student’s life. I believe that teaching is a privilege and that privilege needs to inform our relationships with our students. Teachers need to ensure that they are caring about their students and that the students are responding to that care. As a teacher, I will care about the whole student while he is in the classroom and when he is not.

Supporting Students in their Recognition of Social Injustices

If students recognize social injustices, students will take the initiative to become active agents of social change or reform, even when there are negative externalities. In the video, “Sit Down for Your Rights,” Matt Heffernan organized a sit in protesting the war. He did so realizing the potential for repercussions. Barbara Maniotis participated even though her counselor told her that it would ruin her life (as she was a high GPA student). Freire would consider the actions of the students as the students critically constructing their learning to act as a voice of protest against a social ill. The students read the word (they were literate about the war) to read the world (construct a meaning of the war that inspired them to seek a change or seek to make their concerns heard). Both the school teachers and administration did not support the students. I believe that teachers need to side with their students and for their students to encourage expressions of social injustice recognition to bring about grass roots changes. I can accomplish this by making the classroom open to dissent as well as to constructive critical considerations of the greater social, political and economic hegemonies.