What Came before--A Paragraph a Day

I'm teaching Spanish now, and unfortunately, many of the students have a very difficult time of learning the language.  One of my classes is Spanish 3, and one of the things that I find out rather consistently is who the students had for their Spanish 1 teacher.  Many of the students took Spanish in middle school, and many of them had a certain teacher who I know demands almost nothing of his kids in class.  His own Spanish is rather mediocre, and he's happy just to throw a worksheet or two at the kids to keep them busy for the time they happen to be in his classroom.  And I get them in my classes later, in high school, only to find that they're sorely lacking in the knowledge and skills that they really should have if they want to study Spanish 3.  I have to be lenient, though, because I know that their learning was sabotaged by a teacher who didn't challenge them or guide them through the process of learning the early steps of this particular language.  And I try to remember that I could apply this approach to almost everyone in every situation--someone could be bad at relationships because of what came before; someone else could constantly say inappropriate or insensitive or even rude things because of what came before, another person could be afraid of taking risks or taking on challenges because of what came before.  If I maintain my sensitivity and compassion, I can refrain from judging people harshly because I usually have no idea what came before, and my harsh judgment now may end up being "what came before" later, when they would be much better off having memories of my helpfulness and encouragement, and my efforts to help them to learn and perhaps even make up for some of the time they lost with what came before.