Sure, along with cooking, and how to manage money. Seriously, kids who know how to interact with people properly, can cook, and invest wisely can't be stopped. =)

YOu are tright that if we only teach academics we are missing something. BUt I have to wonder if we can teach kindness and compassion (or faith for that matter). Maybe the best we can do is model it and hope is catches on.

That being said, I have other things that should maybe be added to the curriculum to help teach respect : a religions course (not a course in anyone belief system but a course introducing the basic elements of many world religions), and every high school student in the country travelling from coast-to-coast by land with stops in various places to get a sense of how diverse a country we actually are.

i think that if compassion is thrown in to a kids life at an early age it will help them immensely. i also think that if we teach kids a world view it will get them thinking about other people. children and teenagers today are far to concerned about the things happening in there own little bubbles. Being in high school myself i know that me and maybe one of my friends watch the news on a regular basis and we arn't the ones getting in stupid fights or sitting in detention. so yes something like compassion needs to be taught in schools but it can't be something that is forced it should be integrated amoung everyday lessons. haha if any of that makes sense to anyone other than myself i applaud you.

can we really teach people to learn to be compassionate? I think it is a way in which a person is raised to show compassion. in addition, is it possible to have one way to express such a feeling as in how do the teachers go about in teaching such a thing?

Maybe it's not that we need to teach compassion in class, but make sure that the teachers are compassionate and then us kids could learn from their actions.

re. compassion, I think it definitely needs to be shown in the schools, but to say it part of a formal " Curriculum" is too formal. Educators just need to show compassion, setting a good examle.

You must have read my mind! I am a college level teacher who teaches the Social Work program. I incorporate compassion into all of my lessons. I have found after working in the Social Work field for over 20 years that there are many social workers who have apparently not heard of the definition of compassion...I have made it my responsibility to see that all of my students graduate and go out into the real world with compassion, genuiness, and unconditional positive regard for all.

Wow, probably one of the best ideas I've heard lately. Compassion, social skills, cooking, money-management, etc. are all things that kids should learn about. It doesn't take much time or resources, it only requires a desire to teach, and to make things better.

Teaching compassionate in school sounds like a great idea. I'm sure it would stop a lot of those petty playground fights too, and negative behaviour between friends.

Of course compassion should be part of the school curriculum, that's what Catholic elementary teach the kids. I don't know about other schools but this should be a big part of our schools because so many kids are into the me and you can't play stage.

What about raising children to be compassionate...what about the responsibilities of being a parent? Why is it always "what the schools should be teaching?" It is as if the role and responsibilities of the parent are non-existent anymore. It use to be that a child would enter the school system with a sense of compassion, a sense of respect for others, a good worlk ethic, etc. and that was because the parents were teaching that at home from birth.

I agree with you Salt but the reality is that to a large degree parents are not doing their job and lets face it, u can't legislate parents....but the school syystem... u can legislate in that arena. My hope is that somewhere along the line kids will be exposed to and learn compassion.

You'd be surprised at how much teaching around compassion there is in our public schools. For years now, children with disabilities have been fully included in public schools (at least here in BC); adults encourage and empower these children's more "typical" peers to embrace their differently-abled peers into their circles of friendship. Elementary aged children are very commonly paired with younger buddies, or family groupings, to encourage kindness and leadership skills. Schools are VERY often involved in all kinds of community service - from food & clothing drives, to visits to seniors' facilities, disaster relief, you name it.

At the high school level, courses are offered in Human Services and peer helping, where students learn to work compassionately with all different kinds of people - from volunteering in homeless shelters to visiting hospitals.

There are anti-bullying and anti-violence programs in most schools, which teach compassionate behaviours and positive problem-solving skills, and the Roots of Empathy program, in which parents bring babies to school to encourage empathy in older children.

You see - it's already there....but very much like the church, schools and teachers are competing with a world where the credo seems to be everyone for him/herself & get all you can for yourself and never mind the other guy. We need to do aLOT of work in our adult world before we can expect all our children to internalize compassion, don't you think?

Thanks Aurora, and I agree with you. As adults we are the role models and learning is not confined to just the classroom.

Compassion is a funny thing. Many, probably most, people will swear on the Bible that they are compassionate, while in the same breath preaching hate. Real compassion is a rare thing ... sadly very rare.

The thing is, the politics of the day always pollute compassion. A century ago very compassionate people thought that racial minorities should be treated badly. It was part of the politics of the day.

A few months ago there were two major studies of campus attitudes on dating violence, Scotland and Florida. In both, most of the girls believed that hitting and hurting a boyfriend is completely acceptable behavior (the boys were STRONGLY opposed to hitting anyone). OK, are the young ladies not compassionate?

We simply have to face the facts that we live in a society wherein a female's violence towards a male is openly seen as acceptable, right and reasonable behavior. Compassion is not part of the thing. (YES! Yes, that must change ... We all should know that.)

Herein lies the heart of the mystery: Real compassion requires one to see the "lesser" person as a person! That means one must overcome the politics of the day and THAT, that is hard. That is also not taught in any school.

Overcoming the politics of the day to see the other as a fellow human being is one of the hardest things to do, it is not at all taught in any school, yet, we find it in the preaching and behavior of Jesus.

While compassion should be taught, it never is.

Why only "compassion?" Surely the schools teach many more values each and every day in the way that students are treated and expected to behave. Sadly many of the "lessons"are undermined by what young people hear at home, watch on TV and read about in our daily papers. There is only one way to teach any values and that is by living them all day every day. It cannot be a do what I say and not what I do lesson. Many parents are doing their very best but they too face the media in all its forms.. It is time for the whole community to decide that our young people really matter and then work together to model the values we want our young people to have. Look to York region for a model of community agencies and businesses doing just that.

stargazer if those qualities arent taught at home I doubt if the school can foster those same qualities. If the Dad is a bully at home, kids usually follow their parents example. Also I believe you cant put the quality of compassion into a child, it is a gift from above.

Here we go again. Yet another fluffy bird-course that ought to get added to the curriculum. If our schools wanted to revitalize society, they'd go back to the Classics and teach Plato and Cicero.

you cannot teach a course on compassion, and hope that people will become compassionate as a result. In fact, it would almost certainly become a course of preaching at people, wasting a lot of everybody's time.

What you can do is have a school system that is compassionate, with a sense of compassion built into every aspect of the school's operation.

You will reach far more people by example than you will be teaching at them. And if you do not set the example yourself an in the system, then a course would have no effect because you obviously don't believe yourself in what you are teaching.

graeme

graeme: Here! Here! Yes. Well said.

This goes to the point I made back in November. Teaching compassion is a matter of teaching by example: To teach compassion you need to be compassionate and to be compassionate you need to see the other as a person and to see the other as a person you need to overcome the politics of the day. Put it all together and this is a VERY hard thing to do.

I hope I am not coming across as the turd in the punchbowl, but if you are suggesting a course on compassion, I would have to disagree strongly. By all means, teachers should deal with all students in a compassionate way. Compassion is a way of relating to other people and should be shown through action and not formal instruction. I think an actual course would do more damage than good.

Maybe instaed of anti-bullying campaigns and teaching, etc, pro-Compassion might be more readily accpted? Dunno. One would hope...

Here in Ontario you now need to volunteer 20 hours to get your high school diploma. Does that teach compassion though? If my time at the old folks home is any indication, then no.

Compassion isn't something you can be taught. No stories or lectures, no "seeing with your own eyes" nor experience can teach compassion.

Well I think this is a great opportunity to point out the absurdity of the juxtiposition of this post at the same time as the post on "church" vs "religion."
These things you speak of shculd be taught at church. Schools should work on teaching kids how to read. Take your kids to church and you should be safe.

"Sure, along with cooking, and how to manage money. Seriously, kids who know how to interact with people properly, can cook, and invest wisely can't be stopped. =)"

When I was in high school, girls were required to take at least one Home Economics class and boys were required to take a class called "Bachelor Survival". Cooking, money management, and how to sew on a button was taught in these classes.

I mentioned this in don'tbeordinary's thread about "do we complain too much about people who hurt us" but I'll say it again--I think schools should model and encourage resilience, in addition to compassion.

Kids need to learn to put bad stuff behind them as well as learning not to inflict bad stuff on others in the first place.

The two concepts are complementary, like "rights" and "responsibilities". Value one and not the other and you end up in the soup.

I don't think an actual credit course about those values is desirable, or necessary. (But an actual course about filling out your income tax form and sewing on buttons and making something to eat other than Kraft Dinner would be fantastic.)

I agree - compassion shouldn't be a course (Compassion 102 anyone?).

Compassion should be implicit in everything we do - whether it be as parents, in the schools, in our churches, in our political system. Of course compassion starts wtih parents but the reality is that some children grow up in dysfunctional homes where compassion is in short supply. For some of those kids, school is the safe place, the only place where they do get some compassionate modelling. I want the people who interact wtih my children to be compassionate, plain and simple.

And remember, compassion is our goal. We are all going to have moments of failure - but we always have to go back to compassion.

targazer I argree with Prodge it is the church that should preach compassion and take to task anyone who shows none. But compassion has to do not with the person, but circumstances and environment has a lot to do with how a person copes with this.

"It is the church that should preach compassion". right, a responsibility we should hand over to the church considering its track-record!

They teach compassion and social niceties in my children's school. I applaud their efforts.

Cathi

I posted a reply to this...then changed my mind a bit. I'm a high school student, and I don't think compassion can be learnt in a course. It has to be taught gradually. It's something you learn with life experiences, along with your own personal values. However, I would like to have an Etiquette, or Proper Manners class at school...I find that kind of thing interesting and useful

I think I should add a warning.

It was about thirty years ago that the schools started including sex education in the curriculum, and since then the birth rate has been in steady decline.

Think about it.

Seems to me sometimes that it you want to produce people who are generous, compassionate and polite, then create courses in greed, cruelty and loutishness. Make them required courses with final exams. It's be a whole new world out there.

graeme

It would not hurt but I am not sure that it would actually help. I think that one can have a head knowledge of compassion but until it becomes a heart knowledge the person will not actually be compassionate.

Compassion is best taught when educators practice in their day to day interaction with students. Kindness, compassion mercy can be highlighted from the material that we learn in other subjects. Care for the earth as students learn Geography, the "Quality of Mercy is not Strained" as they read and hear Shakespeare, the lessons of forgiveness, kindness and hypocrisy as they hear Mark Twain's character address the Angry Mob, in their English Course.

Our literature, our history and the way that we conduct ourselves provide the best lessons for students, we do not need a new curriculum.

Holden

one of the curious things about education is that you often do not explicitly teach what students learn.

In my elementary and high school history, I really didn't learn much history. I learned to enjoy history (and that was lucky, because not many do); but I learned very little about history itself.

Similarly, my knowledge of grammar and spelling did not come from grammar and spelling classes. It came from reading. To this day, I do not have much formal knowledge of the rules of grammar but i can more less sort of right, like you know.

You can teach specifically what a course is supposed to be about - but only to those students who are really committed to it. Most students will simply memorize enough to get past the exam, then forget it. In the course of that, they will learn nothing at all - or learn something you didn't know you were teaching.

That means that educators should be thinking pretty deeply about what it is that students are learning, what it is they learn by accident, what they are learning that could be developed usefully...

One of the great failings of universities is that they don't even begin to understand this - and they will refuse to even consider it because it offends their sense of mission and grandeur.

graeme

yes, there is too much hate in the world, and teaching about compassion would help. I think that if we could be compassionate, and think of others, we could be happier.