Kindness is often on my mind when I'm teaching high school students. It's one thing to teach things like English and Spanish and Literature, but it's something altogether different to try to teach young people to be kind to one another, to show each other compassion and understanding. Most young people do their best to be good people, of course, but it's very tempting for them to say those words that will make someone laugh, but hurt someone else. It's easy for them to be inconsiderate--or perhaps it's difficult for them to be considerate when their main focus in life is currently themselves. It comes with the age, doesn't it? They're growing and learning and trying to do the best they can in everything, but they're still self-centered. So how do we teach kindness? Honestly, I don't really try because I'm not sure that something like that can be taught. I do model it every chance I get, which is almost all day, every day, but I don't look at it as something that I can teach to someone else. Rather, I make sure to point out the negative results of unkind words and actions, and I leave it to them to learn it rather than thinking that I can actually teach it. After all, they have to want to have the positive results of being kind in their lives, and the best that I can do, I think, is to help them to see clearly the positive results of kindness on one's own spirit. I don't know how effective the lesson is, but I believe that they can learn to be kind by wanting to feel the positive feelings that come from having been kind to someone else.
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