Sometimes in school, especially college where you have several different professors, teachers do not realize how much the students have going on. They don't factor into their grading that the student has several other classes with many other assignments to attend to than just their class. At least that is how I felt my freshman year. There was a few weeks in particular when I felt like all my teachers suddenly decided to have a big project due. Of-course it was just my luck that all the tests and due dates fell within the same time period but none the less I was extremely overwhelmed with my to do list of homework. Anyways to fast forward the story a bit I was extremely busy. I was doing so much work, I was up very late and I remember stressing about a meeting with a teacher I had to have in the morning to edit one of my papers. I got there in the morning and I don't know what it was, it must have been how I looked or something because the teacher could just tell I was under a lot of stress. She was a teacher that did not allow papers to be turned in late, however she had compassion for what I was dealing with and allowed me another day. I don't feel by any means like oh this teacher is soft, I can get away with not doing things on time, but I think by actually asking me about my week, how much I was sleeping, etc she had sympathy and could see through my perspective. Not only did her compassion lift a weight of my shoulders even though it was just a one day extension it really made me respect her so much more.
When my teacher gave me the respect and actually treated me as an individual who has so many things going on outside of her classroom rather than just another student, I felt so much respect for her. The rest of the year I wanted to do good in her class, show her that I appreciated her as a teacher. Just because she dealt with my stress one day, it wasn't like she was my shrink. She just showed me some compassion when I really needed it.
I do not think a teacher can constantly be like oh I feel bad for you so hear is what I am going to do to make it better, but I think that it is important to understand that we are all just kids who might need a little break sometimes. There will be a time when we might need the teacher for more than just teaching. I don't believe that good teachers just teach curriculum. I think they teach kindness, and compassion as well as a variety of other things like hard work. The teacher that showed me compassion really just helped me when I needed it. My friends and family still remember how stressed I was at that particular time, and it was only my teacher that seemed to be able to lift some of the weight off.
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