In yesterday’s post, I wrote about an inspirational video about kindness that is featured in a series produced by StoryCorps and Upworthy called #WhoWeAre. Today I want to share another video from that series about the unusual way a man handled being robbed at knife-point. It may not be one that you should show younger students, but is definitely great for 5th grade and up. The video is a good reminder that empathy can often be much more powerful than anger or fear.
Here are some more inspirational videos for students.
I have been thinking a lot about this and the idea of modeling empathy and compassion in our classrooms as an effective form of classroom management. In my life experience, when you treat people well consistently and with authenticity of spirit (for sake of it being right, rather than expecting something in return) they will almost never react with an undesired behavior. I believe this is because by doing this, we give people exactly what they want on the deepest and most human level – to be seen and cared for for exactly who they are.
Curious if other educators view modeling empathy and compassion as a viable mode of classroom management. And similarly, whether developing those traits in ourselves as people and educators is a worthwhile goal.
I think it is absolutely worthwhile. I completely agree that students who feel cared for by their teacher will try their best to live up to the teacher’s expectations.