Restoring respect to our schools

Lack of respect-it's been cited as a root cause for many of the problems educators face. In her new book Respect (Perseus Books), Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, professor of education at Harvard University, offers new insight into the age-old concept and shows how building truly respectful relationships could transform our schools.

What can schools do to create a climate of respect? We need to have smaller schools and smaller class sizes.

Real respect involves building empathy, trust, and connections between people. That can happen only when people know one another, when children are visible to educators, and educators visible to children.

In schools like this, whoever is greeting children in the morning could look into their faces and see if there's trouble. Breaking down large schools into schools within schools can create a sense of community. Students can feel identified with a certain group of teachers.

We also need to make schools like the old neighborhoods, where all adults felt they could punish or reward all the kids. Educators can support each other by collectively feeling responsible for all students.

How can educators create classrooms that are places where respect grows?

First, get to know students through their work. Do a lot of writing.

It's an important way to give students the sense that teachers care about them. if we begin to see children as individuals, we can recognize the extraordinary variation in the way children can reveal their gifts.

Classrooms need to be safe environments where kids can say what they're feeling and thinking. It's wrong for a teacher's value system to dominate. A good teacher will open up the discussion. It's all about dialogue, testing out ideas, leaming to ask good questions.

We expect differences among students and teachers in knowledge, skills, and power. What creates equality is a respectful relationship.

I've spent a lot of time observing in high schools and asking students why they like certain teachers. The answer is always the same: "He or she respects me."

These are often the most demanding teachers. They respect students' minds, their capacity to learn, their value as human beings.

How can teachers counteract the disrespect they feel from the public?

Teachers need to first gain a sense of self-respect, and then get involved in public and political discourse.

They have a legitimate gripe. There is a real problem in terms of what our society really values.

Teachers could become much more engaged in letting people know what they do. As part of their education, teachers have to begin to understand not only pedagogy and curriculum, but the whole organization of schools-the societal, cultural, and political context in which they work.

However, to put it in perspective, this is a chronic lament. I don't know of any generation of parents and teachers that hasn't complained about a lack of respect.

For more information on LawrenceLightfoot, visit the Web at http://gseweb.harvard.edu.