Student Capacity in the Face of the Climate Crisis

One of the most important TEA teaching pillars is “Capacity.” TEA  supports  teachers in recognizing and leveraging Student Capacity as a key to fighting the Climate Crisis--and as a key for creating more successful students. Planet Earth needs all hands on deck, and students are capable, ready and willing to contribute. Yet, too often, our teaching--our assignments, tests, and even our tone in class--is based on a deficit model that is more interested in uncovering what students cannot do, or do not know. TEA has developed strategies that help teachers focus on what students CAN do.  Below are 10  propositions about teaching and learning centered around Capacity.

1. “Potential is about what you ain’t doing yet” said a Chabot College student. This statement leads us to Capacity as we would like to discuss it. Capacity exists in the present tense; it needs to be demonstrated NOW to be actualized.

2. A pitcher in the Major Leagues, Sergio Romo, once said about his efforts to help his team during a crucial World Series game,  “It was by far the most difficult thing I have ever done. It’s the obligation to be something more than maybe what you actually are.”

3. Capacity is not only about success; even if Romo had lost the game, he would still have demonstrated his capacity, since capacity is about getting in the game.

4. To leverage the Capacity of our students, instructors need to set the stage for it, and create environments for students to be “something more than maybe.”

5. Time ill-used drains away Capacity. 

6. We perform at a greater Capacity when we are happy. Happiness engenders belief, risk, effort. Happiness creates wholeness, richness in our students and selves. Happiness tamps down trauma.

7. Students arrive more ready to perform/attempt/endeavor than we give them credit for.  Capacity can be realized in an instant. Students talk all the time about “the moment when...” or “this teacher who...” or “this class that....”

8. Uncovering student  Capacity creates building blocks towards achievement, especially when it is linked to a bigger stage.

9. Capacity is most likely to WOW when there is a lot of space in the learning experience—space to make choices, space to express understanding and meaning in personally meaningful ways.

10. A Chabot College student talking about Capacity: “Brothers want to show that they are smart; you need to give them something to be smart about.” The Climate Crisis offers the context, the platform, the environment--literally--for student Capacity to be realized.