Teaching with Compassion

by Peter Kaufman, Janine Schipper

In a world where students are often seen as test scores and not as human beings, where their well-being is challenged by poverty, intolerance, and bullying, and where technological innovations frequently erode genuine personal contact, compassionate teachers are needed more than ever.

Teaching with Compassion offers practical tools and strategies designed to help educators foster a culture of care and compassion. Organized around an eight-point “Teaching with Compassion Oath,” this book draws on real life examples and exercises to demonstrate the power and potential of teaching from the heart. Written for both experienced and novice educators alike, Teaching with Compassion is sure to stimulate inquiry and provide ongoing inspiration.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

Published August 31, 2018

Reviews

[B Frizz · Rating 2 out of 5]

maybe im not a good enough teacher yet but i dont feel more equipped to teach 😭

[Sean · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is utter nonsense. The authors advocate for teaching as armchair therapy. There is nothing academic here. It's a compilation of woo, wherein magical thinking is held above real lessons and solutions.

This book is an exercise in self-edification. The authors doubtlessly wrote this naive treatise on BS as a response to being the butt of the joke within their own departments and the academic world at large. This will not change any minds on that front. Deluded flower children who think that "talking to your feelings" is the height of academic rigor will be pleased. Real academics and folks who actually know something about teaching and are searching out useful lessons on improving their performance will find it sorely lacking.

[Karin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of exercises and I am already incorporating them into my bellwork.

[Curt Bobbitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The authors define "compassion" and urge teachers of all ages of students to adopt it as a defining guide to behavior and character trait. They propose an oath with eight tenets, each one of which becomes the subject of a titled chapter. "Learn from Adversity," "Follow the Golden Rule," "Leave My Ego at the Door," and "Listen with Intention" carry specific background sources from sociologists and philosophers, with several quotations from Buddhists. Those titles probably make sense on first reading. Two chapter titles, however, may strike some readers as more flaky: "Hold Space" and "Teach Like the Sun."

The book's focus urges teachers to overlie concerns of developing students' knowledge and skill with amateur therapy. Many of the exercises avoid content (constructing or solving differential equations, writing court briefs, explaining interrelation of the circulatory and skeletal systems) in favor of emotion and attitude. Some specific suggestions sound especially non academic:

Now, instead of getting lost in your feeling, identify your feeling and talk with it in a kind, caring, compassionate manner….’My dear anger [or whatever strong feeling it is] I know you are there. I am taking good care of you.’

If we’ve been feeding the wolf of hate, we are more likely to face hardship with bitterness, anger, and hostility. If we have been feeding the wolf of love, we are more likely to face hardship with patience, calm, and compassion. To transform adversity into compassionate teaching we may feed the wolf of love, nourishing the qualities and creating the conditions out of which compassion arises.

Valuable reminders of the importance of respect as a virtue and guiding principle permeate the manual, including this claim from the concluding chapter: “Teaching with compassion and developing other prosocial behaviors such as perspective taking and empathy cannot be overemphasized if our goal is to help students grow, develop, thrive, and be able to positively contribute to the world around them.”

[Anna Catterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent resource for educators, highly recommend.