Teaching with Compassion in Challenging Times
The work of teaching has always called on a balance of skills, instructional expertise, leadership, flexibility, and perhaps most importantly, compassion. In a world carrying the weight of so many losses, students and educators alike are navigating uncertainty, anxiety, and disconnection. Against this backdrop, the question becomes urgent: how do we create classrooms that feel like places of welcome, safety, and care?
Compassion is more than simply feeling empathy for another person’s suffering. It carries with it the motivation to help. When compassion leads to action, we often recognize it as acts of kindness and the everyday ways we choose to care for and support others. Research tells us that compassion and kindness are not only good for the people around us, they’re also good for us: boosting happiness, resilience, health, and even academic success.
Yet, in a world where competition and cruelties often take center stage, our innate kindness can easily get overlooked. Schools are uniquely positioned to bring it back into focus.
Creating Kind and Compassionate Classrooms: A Call to Action
Kindness is not a “soft skill” on the sidelines, it’s the foundation of a thriving learning environment and teachers play a central role in setting the tone. We must see beyond the surface.
Victor Pereira, a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, reminds us: “We don’t always know the other person’s story.” A quiet student might be hungry, exhausted, or unsure how to ask for help. What looks like disengagement may actually be resilience in the face of unseen struggles. Compassionate teaching begins with curiosity, choosing to pause, to ask, and to listen, rather than rushing to judgment.
Teaching with compassion isn’t about grand gestures. It’s about steady choices to listen, to honor humanity, to see possibilities where others might only see struggle. In doing so, educators don’t just transmit knowledge; they model what it means to live with care in community.
We all have daily chances to put compassion into practice:
Building relationships first.
Designing lessons for inclusion.
Encouraging self-care.
Encouraging children to notice when peers need support.
Teaching with a prosocial lens.
Focus on growth over gaps.
Practice ethical reflection.
Let students lead with projects they care about.
Center project-based learning around the ethics of care.
Why Compassion Matters
The benefits of compassion ripple outward:
Well-being and happiness. Acts of kindness light up the brain’s reward circuits, making us feel good and strengthening our motivation to help again.
Resilience. Compassion helps us face suffering without being overwhelmed by it.
Health. Compassion lowers stress, boosts immunity, and improves cardiovascular health.
Relationships. It fosters trust, strengthens friendships, and makes kindness a core expectation in families and partnerships.
Increased Engagement. When students feel valued and understood, they are more likely to participate actively and experience success academically.
Academic success. Students who practice kindness and prosocial behavior often see improvements in focus, motivation, and achievement.
Social Justice. By promoting empathy and equity, schools with a focus on compassion help dismantle barriers and foster a greater sense of social responsibility
The Power of Partnership
Compassion doesn’t stop at the classroom door. Strong partnerships between schools, families, and communities can make kindness the fabric of a school’s culture. This can look like:
Families and teachers working as equal partners, with two-way communication about what’s best for each student.
Amplifying family voice in decision-making. Creating advisory committees, improvement teams, or feedback groups where parents help shape school policies and programs.
Defining shared goals and values. Schools, families, and communities working together to define what success looks like for students beyond grades, such as empathy, resilience, or civic engagement.
Schools honoring cultural backgrounds through celebrations and shared stories.
Training teachers to understand family dynamics, cultural traditions, and community strengths.
Community organizations offering opportunities for civic engagement, mentorship, and enrichment.
When families, educators, and community members work together, students experience belonging. That sense of belonging, in turn, fuels both compassion and academic growth. Small acts matter. They ripple outward, strengthening classrooms, schools, and entire communities.
Leo Buscaglia once wrote, “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear… all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
Whether you’re guiding a classroom or nurturing a child at home, the work of compassion in education is a shared endeavor. The Greater Good in Education (GGIE) initiative from UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center offers evidence-based practices, activities, and resources designed for educators and families alike (ggie.berkeley.edu). Their collection spans everything from classroom strategies to at-home practices that foster kindness, resilience, and emotional well-being. By drawing on these tools, parents and teachers can partner in cultivating environments where young people feel safe, supported, and inspired to care for others. Together, we not only strengthen our children’s learning but also contribute to a culture of compassion that reaches far beyond school walls.
Resources for Creating a Radically Compassionate Classroom
