Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now. -Mister Rogers, taken from Teacher Tom‘s blog.
I”ve been thinking a lot about compassion lately. Some of it is because of the comments on the Women and Alcohol series in The Star. Some from reading Teacher Tom’s blog and Single Dad Laughing.
Some of it is personal experience.
I believe in being compassionate. I think I am. Especially with children. However, now that my kids are in my school, I notice how much more compassionate I am with them both at home and at school. When they cry, I spend time trying to figure it out, most of the time. This year I teach a lot of little kids gym. They cry. Sometimes for seemingly no reason. But there’s always a reason. And you know what? They deserve to be heard and their feelings acknowledged. You know what else? That’s hard to do in the middle of a gym class when there are 15 of them running around playing the games. Stop to focus on one for very long and something happens with the others.
It’s also hard to have compassion for the older students when they are mean and rude. Not just to you, but to their peers. Really, really mean sometimes.
It’s really, really hard to be a teacher. I say that because it’s impossible to meet all the needs of all the students all the time. That’s what we strive for as parents, with a slow release plan.
In a school like mine, we have a mix of backgrounds and there are lots of kids who need way more than just academic instruction, support and encouragement. They need a friend, a parent, someone to care for them unconditionally.
Unconditional love and support does not come naturally when it’s not your own child. In fact, I’d venture it’s difficult for many with their own children.
Interestingly, Sophie and Fiona are mostly very compassionate with one another. It almost seems to me like it’s a natural state until…???
What is my point? Maybe I don’t really have one other than let’s try to be more compassionate in every aspect of our lives. On the subway, highway, and bus. At the office, the bank, the grocery store, the classroom. On the internet. At home. Everywhere.
Me thinks I’m a Buddhist in waiting.
