What do we need most? Empathy!

Of course children need food and shelter. That's what they get from their parents. In school they are taught how to multiply, to read and where to find their country of origin on a map of the world. A surprising number of people (not just Americans. Really.) have difficulties reading a map. Especially when they need to think 'outside the box':





If children ask a question and the answer is not in the book, the teacher often doesn't know the answer either. And sometimes there is no answer possible. 'If the Universe if finite, what's beyond its border?' 'Who was the first cowboy ever to call out 'Yihaw!' and why?' 'How is a man supposed to act when his wife says 'Darling, I'm cold?' But that's okay too.

I don't like parents or teachers who then tell children to 'stop asking stupid questions!'. It just shows the parent or teacher is stupid. It really is okay to say you don't know. Especially when you really don't know. So those parents and teachers could also say: 'That's a great question! I don't know the answer either but if one day you do, could you please let me know? Thanks!'

I don't like teachers who give their students a pencil and show them how to draw a house. I like teachers who give their students a pencil and ask them to draw what they find important.

I don't like teachers who give their students instruments and tell them how to use them exactly. I do like teachers who give their students instruments, let them figure out how to use them and are willing to learn from the mistakes their students make. But also are willing to learn from the sometimes amazing solutions their students come up with.

Parents these days hardly have time to cloth and feed their offspring, let alone teach them some basic values. And why should they 'because that's what school is for, right?' They understood this problem in countries like Finland (click) and Denmark (click). Where learning empathy is mandatory.

Children in Finland and Denmark are taught to be better. Not to be better than other kids but better human beings than they were before. Perhaps we can learn from it.

It looks like the city of Camden, New Jersey has: crime as well as 'death by cop' has decreased dramatically since police officers were taught to talk first, shoot later instead of the opposite to which they (police and citizens alike) were grown accustomed to.

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Want to read (more of) my short stories? My author page: Terrence Weijnschenk at Amazon