How do people in a community choose to be disruptive or considerate?
Our prompt comes from an anonymous listener:
Dear Y’all,
I am a teacher struggling a bit with empathy for my students. Some situations are fairly minor. For example, I strongly dislike a student who constantly comes late to class and then takes up time asking questions that I covered during the part of the class she missed. It’s difficult for me to get past the strong dislike I have. So far, I have not snapped at her, but I find her behavior increasingly frustrating… and unchanged. On the other hand, what about students who are racist, sexist, anti-gay, or otherwise seriously problematic? Having empathy for students like that is challenging for me. I realize that these are very different concerns, but, on the other hand, they are alike because I would deal with these issues very differently if they weren’t my students.
How can I deal with students who I strongly dislike?
We also talk about Friends at the Table and Penn and Teller: Fool Us.
Please share any comments you have! If you have a submission of an everyday situation where it’s hard for you to be empathetic or compassionate, write us at: us@avery-weir.net
Our theme music is “Invisible Light” by Josh Woodward, available under a ccby4.0 license.