How do Empathy and Kindness go a long way in teaching?

No matter who or where you are, positive relationships are crucial to leading a happy life. However, in today’s dynamic world, everyone is rushing through their busy lives with little time to nurture relationships.?

When you direct all your energy to dealing with your stress and issues, it becomes challenging to make space for others. This results in impairment of interpersonal relationships and it particularly becomes a problem for professions that rely on interpersonal interactions as their backbone.?

One such profession is teaching. In a classroom setting when a teacher is preoccupied with her own dilemmas, she can’t possibly be attentive to the student's needs.?

As an individual, thinking about your own needs and troubles is completely justifiable. In a professional setting, however, it becomes your responsibility to learn how to manage your needs with that of others in a healthy and balanced manner.

One way to do so is by engaging in the act of Empathy. A classic explanation of empathy is the ability to ‘walk in another’s shoes’ and understand that person’s experience. With empathy, we can counteract unhealthy self-interest behaviours and disconnectedness.?

The best teachers educate with genuine connection, acceptance and understanding, hence, empathy. For teachers, empathy is perhaps the most effective pathway to impart a meaningful lifelong learning mindset.

Empathy can be fostered by Mindfulness. Mindfulness brings with it, an attitude of kindness and curiosity that helps a person better deal with their own emotions and difficulties. This further makes them more able to accept and deal with the emotions of others.?

To increase empathy in a classroom, mindfulness can also be combined with other strategies like teachers using appropriate self-disclosure and empathic listening.

It is important to keep an unbiased open mind when interacting with students. A sense of genuine curiosity and acceptance of individual differences should be embraced.

Be aware, be curious, be an Empath…