The idea that hope alone will transform the world, and action undertaken in that kind of
naïveté, is an excellent route to hopelessness, pessimism, and fatalism. But the attempt to
do without hope, in the struggle to improve the world, as if that struggle could be reduced
to calculated acts alone, or a purely scientific approach, is a frivolous illusion. (Freire,
1997, p. 8)
At the end of the day, effective teaching depends most heavily on one thing: deep and caring
relationships. Herb Kohl (1995) describes “willed not learning” as the phenomenon by which students
try not to learn from teachers who don’t authentically care about them. The adage “students don’t care
what you know until they know that you care” is supported by numerous studies of effective
educators (Akom, 2003; Delpit, 1995; Duncan-Andrade, 2007; Ladson-Billings, 1994). To provide the
“authentic care” (Valenzuela, 1999) that students require from us as a precondition for learning from
us, we must connect our indignation over all forms of oppression with an audacious hope that we can
act to change them. Hokey hope would have us believe this change will not cost us anything. This
kind of false hope is mendacious; it never acknowledges pain. Audacious hope stares down the
painful path; and despite the overwhelming odds against us making it down that path to change, we
make the journey again and again. There is no other choice. Acceptance of this fact allows us to find
the courage and the commitment to cajole our students to join us on that journey. This makes us better
people as it makes us better teachers, and it models for our students that the painful path is the hopeful
path.
-- Jeff Duncan-Andrade
