Last September, Marc Kielburger joined the Dalai Lama in Vancouver where they both gave inspiring speeches about the power of youth to change the world. The wildly enthusiastic response from the young audience proved how universal and necessary this message is for youth everywhere.
The Dalai Lama asserted that in addition to the three Rs—reading, writing and arithmetic—schools should also teach the three Cs—caring, compassion and courage. That way, students will graduate not only with the skills to find a job, but also with the tools to be citizens of the world. (Read more on Marc’s visit with the Dalai Lama in the Global Voices article A Fine Lesson in Leading by Example by Marc Kielburger.)
I agree with the Dalai Lama. In the broadest sense, our purpose as educators is to empower students to discover their abilities—with caring, compassion and courage among the most important. We all have a story about a student who accomplished great things after being inspired by a caring teacher.
But the Dalai Lama’s message can leave teachers in a quandary: where should all this caring take place? We teach in times that are motivated by test scores, accountability and students’ looming university applications. It’s hard to justify adding anything more to our programs if there’s no potential mark for it.
Caring is contagious—especially in the classroom.
But perhaps it’s not about incorporating a new subject of caring into the curriculum—it’s about thinking differently about our practice.
Caring and compassion should be modeled rather than prescribed. One of the best ways to model these ideals is by caring about students’ ideas and making all students feel valued for their contributions.
Try this experiment. For one week, keep notes about how students participate in class. Questions to keep in mind include: Which students participate most often and less often? Are discussion questions open-ended enough to encourage students to share their ideas? How much time do students have for thinking? How many possible answers does the class explore together? Do your students ask for help? How do you respond to controversy?
The overarching question is whether your methods in the classroom show that you care. The more students feel you care about them and their ideas, the more they will care about the ideas of their peers. They will gain the courage to be caring and compassionate students and citizens.
I would love to hear your thoughts on caring in the classroom. E-mail me anytime at educators@freethechildren.com.
Catherine McCauley, M.Ed.
Director of Teacher Development
Caring and learning through Adopt a Village
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Read more on Marc and the Dalai Lama
