Along with a perpetual doubling down on new standards and new high-stakes test, public education has witnessed a rise in buzz words and policies--rigor, grit, growth mindset, no excuses--that simply ignore the humanity of children and their teachers. Teaching with Compassion is a volume that offers a rare but powerful antidote to misguided deficit views of children, learning, and teaching. In these pages, teachers and others who truly care about learning and children find hope, love, and another way, one that cannot be followed too soon.
In an age when students are often reduced to data points, and humanity in education is discussed less often than test prep strategies, this book is a welcome and refreshing read. Teaching with Compassion not only provides educators with helpful tools to address many of our students' and teachers' needs, but it also helps to provide a little gravity--in terms of universal truths about the hard work of growing humans--that will hopefully help swing the education pendulum back to a place that better prioritizes the well-being of those we serve.
Research shows that compassion benefits both the giver and the recipient. Teachers and students have much to gain from a compassionate interaction not only for the benefit of the learning environment but also for the benefit of their health and happiness.
This lovely, practical book is for teachers who see their work as a catalyst for building a kinder, more compassionate world, but who don't know where to begin. As Teaching with Compassion suggests, we must begin with ourselves.