The unexpected key to student engagement? Dignity. | Rosalind Wiseman | Big Think

The unexpected key to student engagement? Dignity.
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Respect and dignity are sometimes conflated, but Cultures of Dignity founder Rosalind Wiseman argues that they are very different.

Dignity, according to Wiseman, is the essential and inextricable worth of a person. Respect is the admiration for someone's actions, which often involves how they treat others. The rub comes when people in positions of authority and respect (for example, our elders) behave in ways undeserving of that admiration but are seemingly above reprimanding.

"This is actually one of the biggest problems for young people in education," Wiseman says, adding that when that loss of respect and dignity hits home for students, they tend to disengage from learning. "If I could change something about education, it would be to have dignity be a bedrock of education and that everyone—the teachers, the parents, the students, the staff, everyone, the administrators—has to be treated with dignity."
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ROSALIND WISEMAN:

Rosalind Wiseman is the founder of Cultures of Dignity, an organization that shifts the way communities think about our physical and emotional well-being by working in close partnership with the experts of those communities—young people, educators, policy makers, and business and political leaders. She is an international speaker, a multiple New York Times best-selling author, and a frequent contributor to The New York Times, Washington Post and other esteemed publications.
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TRANSCRIPT:

ROSALIND WISEMAN: If I could wave a magic wand and change something about education, it would be that we would value dignity over control and compliance in schools and in children's education. Dignity means the essential worth of a human being; you just have it and it cannot be taken away and we often conflate the two words of dignity and respect. When we do use the word dignity we conflate dignity and respect as being the same thing and they are not. And so, dignity is the essential worth of someone and respect is admiring their actions, admiring someone based on how they have acted—and usually that is about them treating people with dignity. So, one of the things that we get really confused about is that we say, well, we have to respect our elders, we have to respect our teacher, we have to respect our parents, our grandparents, the police, a politician, those kinds of things. But that is based on this assumption that we don't talk about, which is that we admire what they have done to get to that position. But what happens when we have people in those positions who abuse the power and abuse their position of authority and the position of respect that they have to not treat people with dignity? It makes people incredibly angry when you are on the receiving end of this and it looks like, often times, that people in positions of power are hypocrites and that they are just using this position to go after other people.

But especially for young people, there's really not space to be able to talk about that because we have this thing of 'you have to respect your elders', which means you can't confront them when they are doing things that you fundamentally think are taking away your dignity or the dignity of other people. And so, this is actually one of the biggest problems for young people in education or taking adults in general seriously, because they consistently see adults who are using their position of respect and authority to go after other people or to put themselves above the rules that they are also forcing young people to obey. So, this is something that we don't like to acknowledge, it's something that we feel, like, oh my gosh this is going against my cultural values of respecting people in positions of respect. But really what we're doing is that we are looking like we respect people when they are abusing power and we're just angry. And what happens for young people is they disengage from school when it happens to them or they disengage in whatever it is that they're doing when they have an adult who is doing this.

So, all to say, if I could change something about education, it would be to have dignity be a bedrock of education and that everyone—the teach...

[bigthink]

What do you think is the key to student engagement?

[Blablablarandomguy]

Well said. We're living in the dark ages when things like these have to be explicated. Competition and control starts so young that it has completely killed off the potential of entire generations past. We as a species can be so much more.

[Talkinglife]

When students are engaged, they're motivated to learn. Here's how teachers can secure real engagement.
As teachers, we look for the strategy, activity, resource, or tool that will enrapture our students and make them eager
to learn more. We yearn for students who ask intriguing questions, seek and act on feedback, and take pride in their
progress and accomplishments.
Although we know these things are vital, the realities of our routines—the rush to cover information before the test or
graduation day—often make it difficult for us to do what's best. We need students' undivided attention to keep up with
the pace of learning; yet we often settle for something else.

[jurijjogaila]

“Homelessness is a humiliating experience”, I said once to a friend. He walks up to homeless people and has a chat with them sometimes. And he didn’t like what I said so he asked me, “how is it humiliating”? I asked him, ” but how does it dignify”? And he didn’t have anything to say. I agree that dignity has to be at the core of education. After experiencing homelessness personally, I have essentially concluded that constructing a healthy understanding of dignity is the first step to recovery. Would Rosalind be so kind as to suggest what has to be said about dignity to teach volunteers how not to humiliate the dignity of homeless people? Unfortunately, that happened too often among the volunteers who I have encountered myself. Too often they think the fact that they fill a plate with food for you makes them absolutely respectful. How do you solve such ignorance with dignity?

[jong]

We must speak naturally & say the same things talking with people of any age or status, but especially with those younger or less knowledgeable. Why? It treats all people as capable & intelligent, but, more importantly, as EQUAL human beings.

[davidbrown]

Excellent! Thank you.

I strive to be courteous to others, and respectful toward people in positions of authority, regardless of whether I respect their character. We should challenge bad ideas, behavior, and at times organizations/movements with civility, but not make personal attacks (avoid attacking their character--it's impractical). Every person has individual value.

Humility, modesty, courtesy, gratitude, self-discipline, stoicism and dignity have been sadly under-valued in recent years.

[importantname]

title should be - Definition of the words ; Dignity, and, Respect.

[JohnVKaravitis]

Unless you're a student who has the same religious/ethnic background as the teacher. "Wiseman" knows exactly what I'm talking about.

[adtc]

OMG someone needed to say this!!! Thank you!

[markkravitz]

👍 Napoleon said whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. A cool entrepreneur @evenkingsfall (his insta) says the key is you have to THINK BIG to WIN BIG! Always keep that energy! Looking forward to your next video ❤️

[peka__]

What a promising topic and what a disappointing video.

So the message here is to not demand respect, but instead we should accept disrespect for reasons of people mot deserving it?

The definition of dignity here makes it sound like it's a totally new and neglected idea.
I don't know where you teach, lady, but at my school dignity is not something you give or deny to people but something that people cultivate or neglect themselves.

I can't believe that this video claims to be a key to student engagement.

I might imagine a school somewhere in the outback that does not care too much about the dignity of their students.

But the bigger and more common problem is schools where concepts of dignity and respect are not taught anymore and now it has become an issue of entitlement.

If your message had been to engage students by making them aware of the complex interrelations of dignity and respect, professional interrelations and responsibilities, then there might be some kind of key to be found here.

For lack of that this video is just another feelgood message for people who don't have to deal with real and daily educational problems.

[caimacd]

I mean... isn't the primary purpose for modern education to prepare people for employment? You definitely don't want to normalize being treated with dignity in that context. I mean... for the higher end schools, sure. It would be okay. But for middle class and below, you're just asking for problems in their work life.