This was an essay done two years ago, before I was aware of being multiple. I realize, looking back, that Vivien and I both wrote the paper, thus the "various" name on the title. Before you ask, yes, I did turn this in, for credit, and got full marks, and nobody said a word about the topic, despite the fact that it mentioned teachers in general. I have to say before I go on, those were some brave teachers who read the paper without even batting an eye at its subject. :p Let me also add that the inspiration for this essay didn't come from a teacher who I still have, so no worries there. :)
February 16, 2015.
Why lack of compassion should be repaired in schools.
Maria Maes.
When I think of professionalism, my thoughts don't focus on education or skills required for a job. They focus on the complete lack of compassion in some settings, and why this should be avoided. Picture this: a person is crying for whatever reason, and what they need is someone to comfort them and tell them that it's alright. However, the workers at whatever place the person is don't seem to care about how the person feels. By the way, it could be any place in the world, not just schools. So rather than taking that little bit of time to comfort the person, notice how the workers are brusque and unseeing, and even how one tells the person not to cry, because they don't want to deal with their tears. Now change the setting from a school to, say, a psychotherapist's office and notice that the person is getting the reassurance he/she needs, and think about how that time in the school when they were told not to show their pain affected them. I mean these words not in a disrespectful way, but in a way that still gets your attention and prevents you from being that teacher who tells a student to hide their feelings all because you don't want to deal with it.
Now, I understand that this is a school and that we, as students, are here to learn and that you, as teachers, are meant to teach. But I also must stress the point that for all that you expect of us, we are still growing physically and emotionally. Now, I understand that to a point, you're doing the right thing when you tell us not to distract other people around us by crying, or when you try to stop it through other means. But have you ever thought back on your days as a student and how, some days, you wanted to cry your eyes out in the middle of class? Things haven't changed much in that way, And if you really want to know, I think telling a student to stop crying because you don't want to deal with it is selfish and rude. If you want them to stop crying, with reduced risk of it starting up again, then for goodness sakes, show that you care, because when someone knows that you give a grain of sand about them, they just might have a reason to smile, for once. I myself am not in that kind of situation where nobody at all cares about me, but it would be nice if the teachers in schools let a little of the human in them show and stopped putting up a front to convince kids that they're too emotional.
Hiding emotions in school distracts from learning. Like the aforementioned issue, suppressing one's feelings can lead to difficulty learning in school, because the student is sidetracked by what's going on in their head, and can't focus on schoolwork. Let me elaborate. In October of 2014, I went on an emotional downward spiral because a lot was going on in my life. If it weren't for some of the teachers in this school, I would be a lot worse now than I am. It is proven that suppression of emotions in school creates learning issues. Do you realize how many students are never going to graduate simply because hidden emotion is holding them down? Do you really want to be that teacher who is known by the students as The Cold One?
Emotional maturity will never be fully realized in students who never got healthy emotional responses in childhood. Their emotional responses will be the ones of small children, even though they may not show it. A child who grows up in a cold home situation and an uncaring school situation, where they are perhaps looked down upon and shamed for showing their feelings everywhere they go, will have a bigger likelihood of growing up to be a cold and unfeeling person themselves. A child who grows up in a warm home, and whose schoolmates value his feelings, will have a bigger likelihood of growing up and doing the same, because that's what they've known. Us being in school should not prevent our emotional development. Please, don't be one of the teachers who pitches in on that prevention.
In conclusion, lack of compassion in schools stunts our emotional growth. It sets us up to have a bigger likelihood for an unfeeling life when we grow up. It creates learning difficulties because we may be sidetracked by what's going on in our heads. Over all, it's just not a good thing. So, what do you think? Do you think things should be left as they are? Or do you think this complete lack of compassion should be repaired in not only schools, but everywhere?