Compassion Over Cancellation: Seeing the Humanity Across the Aisle

Educators must show society what respectful and robust disagreement can look like.

We’ve seen so much division in the last two years.

Democrat versus Republican. Liberal versus conservative. East versus west. Urban versus rural. Rich versus poor.

And if that wasn’t enough, the pandemic has introduced bigger wedges than ever.

Relatives have severed relationships. Friendships have been finished. Neighbours have stopped talking to each other. Creators have been utterly cancelled in a flourish of clicks and keystrokes.

When adults behave badly online

On the weekend I observed another local protest. And by?observed?I mean I followed it on social media platforms.

Protestors and counter-protestors faced off. Emotions were clearly running high and there was no shortage of screaming euphemisms on either side of the issue on the ground and online. But one moment from Twitter really got my attention.

Someone there gleefully?infiltrated?(his word) a group of protestors. He began snapping pictures of participants and tweeted each photo with snide, belittling remarks for each unsuspecting subject.

Every tweet attracted the likes and encouragement of not hundreds but thousands of others. No age, gender, or culture was safe. The pile-on was enthusiastic and the disgust for the oblivious protestors was visceral and unforgiving.

Online bullying at its finest.

Following the thread, I had a startling realization. It’s a thought that I’m sure has crossed many educators’ minds over the last two years.

We don’t even let our middle schoolers behave like this.

Defining democracies: educators play lead roles

I’m a middle school vice-principal. My Chromebook homies can’t access social media platforms at school, but they sure can on their personal devices at home.

Sometimes, the home stuff comes to school. Students misbehave so badly on platforms like Discord that hurt feelings spill over into classrooms.

Screenshots are taken. Complaints are made. Emails are sent. Parents are upset, and school administrators are asked to intervene.

Of course, K-12 schools have neither the capacity nor inclination to police online environments outside of school. That’s a fool’s errand and an impossibility to even attempt.

But it IS part of our mandate to love, serve, and mentor the lovely young humans that fill our hallowed halls each day. To the degree that we can, we engage in heartfelt conversations around digital citizenship.

More to the point and more universally applicable, we describe what it looks like to engage in civil discourse with those who see things differently.

Modelling life and relationships in a civil society

As educators, we teach this explicitly and implicitly in front of the next generation every single day. We are models and our influence is vast. Our children and students are listening.

• How do we respond to adversity?
• How do we address those who mistreat us?
• How do we refer to colleagues and administrators?
• How do we speak about voices in the world with whom we have vigorous disagreement?

These are opportunities to demonstrate something increasingly rare in our world today … the compassion and humanization of the?other.

So.

In and out of the classroom, let’s advocate passionately. Argue fiercely. Critique courageously.

Let’s celebrate the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of a free society and members of a healthy democracy.

But as we do so, let’s not lose sight of the humanity on the other side. Because the people across the street are humans, too. They’re human beings with passions, dreams, pain, and hopes just like us.

Humanization isn’t just essential for our world today; it will be absolutely critical for the world of tomorrow.

As educators, let’s set the stage.