We no longer have to guess how to go about building caring systems that will transform the lives of children like those we met at the beginning of this article. We have only to look at several decades of two compelling bodies of educational research: the long-term developmental studies of resilience and the more than one thousand studies on cooperative learning. The former identify what components must be present in child rearing systems (whether school, family, peer or community groups) if youth are to succeed; and the latter studies tell us how to create and sustain the essential components within learning systems. 

Our respected colleague, Bonnie Benard, has given the field of youth development and education a significant framework by synthesizing the impressive longitudinal studies on resilience. We only have to ask ourselves, What if every school community recognized that a child’s daily environment is the primary predictor of success or failure? What if all school site councils learned that in spite of serious, high risk life circumstances, a majority of children would succeed in life if our schools would established a supportive, caring environment for growth and learning? 

The protective factors as proven by years of research and defined by Benard fall into three succinct categories. A child’s capacity to overcome deprivation and adverse life conditions becomes a reality when systems foster:

Caring and supportive relationships – Caring relationships within systems convey compassion, understanding and respect. They are grounded in attentive listening, safety and basic trust.

Positive and high expectations – High expectations communicate firm guidance, structure and challenge, and most importantly, convey a belief in a young person’s innate resilience. They highlight strengths and assets as opposed to problems and deficits.

Opportunities for meaningful participation – Opportunities for meaningful participation (leadership and contribution to the community) may be actualized through decision making, listening and being heard, with each person being included with valued responsibilities. (Benard, 1991) It is no surprise that these protective processes work. They meet our basic human needs for love and belonging; for respect, challenge, and structure; and for meaningful involvement, power and ultimately, meaning. In other words, they meet our human need to be included and to be of value to a community. 

Cultures containing these components assure the development of physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and moral competence (Werner and Smith, 1992). High school graduations in school communities that create and sustain an environment rich in protective factors would celebrate the development of social and moral competence as well as cognitive and physical competency in their graduates. As predicted by longitudinal studies, students would have developed the life-long abilities of. . . 

• social competence: responsiveness, cultural flexibility, empathy, caring, communication skills, and a sense of humor 
• problem-solving: planning, help-seeking, critical and creative thinking 
• autonomy: a sense of identity, self-efficacy, self-awareness, task-mastery, and adaptive distancing from negative messages and conditions; and 
• a sense of purpose with belief in a bright future: goal direction, educational aspirations, optimism, meaning, and spiritual connectedness (Benard, 1991). 

How can we bring this about for all students? Educators throughout thousands of school communities in the United States, Canada and Australia now are using the Tribes Learning Community (Tribes TLCh) process to establish caring systems for human development. Developed over 20 years ago to prevent youth problems through the use of positive peer groups, the Tribes approach draws upon research to incorporate studies on cooperative learning, group process, brain-compatible learning, multiple intelligence, thematic instruction, conflict resolution and interactive teaching methods. Tribes is a process—not just a curriculum or a set of group activities. It is a step-by-step sequence of appropriate strategies to attain our goal of youth development. The caring process becomes an on-going culture within the school because it is facilitated and monitored by students within peer groups (tribes). The culture is transformational for learning and development. It makes kindness, respect for diversity and social support a reality throughout the school.

The stated mission of Tribes is:  To assure the healthy development of every child so that each has the knowledge, skills and resiliency to be successful in a rapidly changing world.

This ambitious mission can be systematically achieved as the school community engages all teachers, administrators, students, and families in working together as a learning community dedicated to caring and support, active participation and positive expectations for all students. (Gibbs, 1995, p. 22). 

The Tribes systems approach creates long-term mini-communities (tribes: small groups of 4-6 members) parents in classroom groups, teachers in faculty groups, students in cooperative learning tribes. The decentralized structure provides energy and inclusion within any group of peers no matter the age, culture or stage of development. Appreciation for each person’s uniqueness (race, culture, gender, abilities and contributions) is assured within the tribes. A parent from Ontario, Canada, wrote: 

"When I first realized that the Tribes process would be an integral part of my son’s education, I was intrigued by the concept of cooperative learning, but plagued by the typical doubts associated with group learning. However, during the times that I have been involved with the classroom activities, I have been quite impressed with the Tribes approach. The students are learning so much more than just the required task at hand. To listen to one another, to help each other, to express oneself, to compromise, to look for the good in others and in oneself. . . these are concepts which are constantly reinforced and the tools that will prove invaluable throughout life." 

The sense of community that all age groups seem to seek today becomes a reality as people work together on meaningful goals, tasks and challenges. The strength of the process evolves out of the special quality time that is spent to build inclusion whenever the groups come together. No one is isolated, no one fears to talk or ask questions in the midst of the caring groups. 

A central concept of Tribes is that anyone who does not feel included in a group (staff, family or organization) will gain inclusion (attention) by asserting influence (acting out or dropping out). Those two young students mentioned early in this article were doing just that, and would continue to do so if it were not for the culture of their classroom. This is why schools report a 75-85 percent decrease in discipline problems within the first six months of using the Tribes process in classrooms. It explains why teachers report having more time to teach now that they are not busy managing disruptive behavior. 

The use of cooperative learning groups can be difficult unless people learn how to get along—to work well together. Renown researchers David and Roger Johnson warn educators against placing socially unskilled students in a learning group and then telling them to cooperate. Students must be taught the social skills needed for collaboration and then be motivated to use them (Yager, Johnson and Johnson 1985). The Tribes TLCh community building process teaches twelve essential collaborative skills and transfers the responsibility to students to help each other honor four positive agreements: attentive listening, appreciation/no put-downs, the right to pass, and mutual respect. 

Every lesson in a Tribes classroom has two objectives: the academic content to be learned and the collaborative social skill to be practiced. Each lesson begins with the teacher announcing the objectives to the students, and concludes with the tribes assessing the extent to which they achieved the objectives while working together. Often students themselves help to decide what content and skills they want to learn or practice together. If indeed we want to improve academic test scores, teachers need to learn how to transfer leadership and individual accountability to peer groups. Studies prove that group interdependence consistently increases student achievement more than control methods (Stevens and Slavin, 1995, p. 323). Inclusion and safety within Tribe groups takes peer leadership and responsibility to exciting new levels of learning and development. 

The Tribes philosophy and methodology is premised on the power of healthy peer groups to connect, to heal, and to give voice to give voice to the disempowered. Over the many years of working in this field, my head and heart have become convinced that ultimately "our work is not about a curriculum or a teaching method. . . it is about nurturing the human spirit with love (Miller,1990)." The many problems of youth—alienation, violence, drug abuse, gangs, dropping out, suicide, delinquency and despair—will never decrease until school, family and community include youth as leaders in building systems that work for kids. We need to envelop all children and youth in unbounded inclusion and respect. Acting out and dropping out are signs that we have failed to meet their basic human need for community. 

Yet as one Tribes principal states, "Whatever we want to have happen for kids first has to happen for the staff of a school, so that we can model the skills and behaviors we want students to learn." (Gibbs, 1995, p. 200) School personnel like all human beings, long for inclusion, respect, and supportive relationships with peers. They too will tap their innate capacity for resilience—for motivation and learning, engagement, empathy, insight, creativity, optimism, and change—when their school systems become a culture of caring. The good news is that a growing number of educators and school boards are recognizing that while other reforms may be needed, better learning for more children ultimately relies on the competency and collegiality of the teachers within the school. Tribes Professional Development leads the way, (Gibbs, 1998). 

Judi Fenton, Principal in a Whidbey Island School in Washington, believes that every member of her staff feels supported 100 percent of the time. Judi says, "Without this caring support as a foundation, we could not go nearly as far academically. I’ve never seen people who were more closely bonded or more caring than in this school." (The poem "Safe Place," which concludes this article, was written by a teacher who is also appreciative of the staff environment within his school.) 

The connection between cultures of caring and academic excellence can be observed from preschool to university classrooms. I was particularly impressed one very cold day visiting a high school an hour’s drive out of Oshawa, Ontario. Deep in the blizzard, the warmth of the school was symbolic of the learning environment in Gloria Woodside’s senior economics class. Eighteen young people, heads together in five groups, analyzed the implications of cut-backs in different sections of the Canadian National budget. Discussions in each tribe were animated and intense. Mrs. Woodside asked each group to select a member to present the group’s viewpoint in a panel discussion. The first student protested any cuts to transportation services. "But," said another, "maintaining the level of national health services is more important than new roads." The debate continued: "Our study group is unwilling to have education set back due to other priorities." The students drew upon information gained from government documents, newspaper articles and their perspective on political pressures. The rest of the class was rapt with attention, and after twenty minutes I realized the students no longer were just involved in a discussion in front of their class. They were weighing the implications to their own lives, their province, town and families. It was democracy made real, young citizens getting ready to influence the directions of their country. 

The blizzard subsided and the sun sparkled over the shining fields as we drove back to the city. I realized that this is what it is all about. Caring community environments give us a way not only to support human learning and resilience, but perhaps our only path to creating future compassionate citizens capable of leading the democratic communities in which most of us long to live.