Sunday, September 19, 2010
Compassion
One of my favorite teachers, Mrs. McNew, was definitely the most compassionate teacher I've ever had. She was my first grade teacher and she was always kind and caring. I link my passion for reading to her abilities as a teacher to encourage learning while still having fun at the same time. She taught me, more than any teachers before her, how important it is to be kind to everyone, and not to judge. Many of my other teachers obviously encouraged good behavior and compassion, but rarely did they actually act as compassionate as they suggested we do. Mrs. mcNew never raised her voice, and as surprising as this may seem, she never had any issues with kids acting out or causing trouble. The truth is that all the students in her class respected her because of how kind she was. Much like the respect versus fear topic, kids respond much better to a kind teacher than to one who uses bullying or superiority to teach. I hope that one day I will be able to mimic some of Mrs. McNew's compassion in my teaching as well.
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Hi Katie, (I'm Jim's student aid, in case he hasn't "virtually" introduced me to your class yet; he gave me permission to read/comment on your guys' blogs
ReplyDeleteThat difference between demanding respect by instilling fear vs. gaining respect by showing compassion is really interesting. Potentially, both methods can get a teacher "respect," or at least attention and submissiveness, but one better than the other? I'm with you....go compassion! In some of my senior paper research I'm finding that "stress" is a big factor in limiting/encouraging student motivation...I know from my personal experience that I learn a lot more from (and show more respect toward) a teacher that shows compassion, than one who heaps on the pressure....I usually respond by shutting down to the latter. So, as you suggest, maybe there's more to "discipline" in a classroom than acting like kings and queens and demanding our subjects' attention. :)