The importance of practicing collective care and groups on campus that practice collective care.

I took an English class the previous fall term because I needed one more course to complete my C1 College Requirements for English Language Writing. While scrolling through the list of options, I found ENGL 114: Literature and Composition Reading Culture, which caught my interest. Even as a STEM major, I have a particular affinity for the humanities, specifically English classes. The last English class I took was ENGL 113: Literature and Reading Composition Narrative with Dr. Adam Epp, and I loved it!

I greatly enjoy reading texts, analyzing them, and participating in class discussions. I am always spellbound by the detailed nature with which the instructors take you through the poems. They analyze each line’s words, punctuation, capitalization and many other components. While I always enter class having read the text and understood the general themes and messages, it is only through in-class discussions that I truly gain a deeper understanding of it.  

ENGL 114 is a class that focuses on how literature shapes and is shaped by culture. Each class examines a different cultural form, with my fall term class focusing on disability culture. 

While I went in with an understanding of ableism and how society often views people with disabilities, I was still amazed at the new learnings and the many reflections I had throughout the course. 

It was in my first lecture that a quote from Rosemarie Garland Thomson’s essay Becoming Disabled was introduced: “The fact is, most of us will move in and out of disability in our lifetimes, whether we do so through illness, an injury or merely the process of aging(…) Still, most Americans don’t know how to be disabled (…) Since most of us are not born into disability (…), we don’t get acculturated the way most of us do in our race or gender. Yet disability, like any challenge or limitation, is fundamental to being human — a part of every life.”

We all, in some way or another, will experience disability throughout our lifetime. As we grow older, our bodies can no longer perform certain tasks that they once could. Even when we fall ill we are not well enough to carry out everyday tasks. Yet, our society looks down upon those who are dependent on aids to help them perform certain tasks. 

I was raised in a Western culture that tends to value independence, so I too believed that the mark of a competent adult was the ability to do everything myself. I had to know how to cook, clean, file my taxes, and every other task on the never-ending list of adulting. It almost reaches a point where one can feel ashamed to ask for help as they navigate those challenging situations, even at the cost of burning out. Our society views being dependent on others as a failure. 

One of my favourite poems that was analyzed in this class captures this idea perfectly. No Public Safety by Chrystos is about Anne Mae Peoples, a woman living with Chronic Paranoid Schizophrenia who is homeless. She repeatedly trespasses the Public Safety building to sleep. She goes to court but is deemed unfit to stand trial because of her disability. At one point in the poem, the speaker says “We’re all terrified not of growing old but of being unable / to take care of ourselves,” describing how our society is not scared of old age, but of the changes to independence that we experience as our bodies no longer perform certain tasks. 

The poem goes on to demonstrate the hypocrisy of this notion of independence by arguing that we all, disabled and non-disabled, rely on others for help, with “[The lawyers] can take care of themselves with a little help / from their wives who clean buy groceries take the suits / to the cleaners  change the bed cook meals   raise / the children.” Society views lawyers as successful, thriving, and independent people, yet these lawyers still rely on another person to do household chores and share parental responsibilities. However, if a disabled person relies on a mobility aid such as a wheelchair or requires a white cane, society views that as a failure to walk or see. 

This devaluing of interdependence is also shown in how our society views care labour. Often professions that provide care for others such as teachers and nurses are underpaid and lack proper staffing ratios. Even at the university, this can be seen with the AES notetaker position, a form of care labour, that is classified as a “volunteer position” and is unpaid. Yet this service is important for some students with disabilities to continue excelling in their education. 

The concept of collective care, where the group and community take responsibility for each other’s well-being, was introduced to me through this class. There are countless collective care practices around us used not just by disabled people.

In a university setting, many communities support each other’s well-being such as a peer support network. At the University of Saskatchewan, there is the USSU Help Centre. Their Peer Health program promotes students’ well-being through a variety of initiatives, such as the Peer Drop-in Centre, which helps students by providing a listening ear and advice on support services and how to access them on campus. There are many other programs on campus, whether formal or informal, where students can have check-ins and share resources. 

Another example on campus is the USSU Food Centre. There are many programs that the Food Centre offers to help students facing food insecurity, including the uFood Emergency Hamper Program, which provides four hampers per student in each Fall and Winter term.

Collaborative study spaces found in the libraries on campus or group study sessions, such as the mandatory first-year engineering study squads, provide students with the spaces to work together, assist each other with content, and exchange knowledge. This environment promotes and prioritizes collective success. 

Before this English class, I had never thought of the help I would offer a loved one when they were sick as an act of collective care. With this new understanding, I have learned we are all dependent on others. It is virtually impossible to always be fully independent and being dependent on others or something is not a bad thing or a failure. Supporting your peers is part of being in a community, not a burden to our society.

If you are looking for an English class, I highly recommend taking ENGL 114 or really any class taught by Kylee-Anne Hingston, my English professor. 

This academic year, let us strive to build a culture of interdependence—one where students and faculty recognize that fostering an environment that supports academic growth stems from caring for each other.