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As you know, CU has made a commitment to creating a learning environment that allows students to thrive. We seek to meet students where they are and to honor their lived experience and knowledge. We understand what it means for students to pursue a degree full-time while working one or more jobs and caring for family. Some might say that CU’s educational approach calls for ”flexibility” in how learning happens and how it is assessed. And yes, a kind of flexibility of thinking about what teaching and learning looks at its best is required at CU. We seek to interrogate traditional banking methods of education so we don't replicate them. We also want every CU class to be a place where the needs of students are understood, where grace is shown when life happens, and where an ethic of care is foundational to every aspect of our learning community.
Flexibility can also be interpreted to mean that there are no standards and expectations for learning are not important. If this is what flexibility means, then aren't we revealing that we don’t actually believe in the brilliance, intelligence, and abilities of our students to grow and learn? In fact, wouldn’t we be guilty of replicating the same harms that traditional educational systems have perpetuated?
Significant bodies of research have confirmed that students’ academic outcomes are significantly impacted by teachers’ expectations. If we care about our students, we must call them to do their best work and to stretch the limits of what they thought was possible while providing them with necessary supports.
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