“Now I want everyone in this class to understand that there are no stupid people in this class. There may be some people who are smart in one way and other people who are smart in other ways, but there are no stupid people in this class.”
When she had concluded the orientation, she said: “Now, any boy or girl in this class who believes he or she is stupid please stand up.”
Nobody stands up.
“Good, she said, one more time, any boy or girl in this class who believes he or she is stupid please stand up.”
Very slowly a young man in the back of the class stands up.
Shocked the teacher asked: “Brian, do you really believe that you are stupid?”
“No Miss Riley,” Brian replied, “but I didn’t want you to be the only one standing.”
I have told this story a number of times and it never fails to get a laugh or at least a smile. But there is an important point to this story that shouldn’t be missed; even the very young have compassion: “No Miss Riley, but I didn’t want you to be the only one standing.”
We are living at a time when human compassion needs to be at the forefront of everyone’s actions, including young people’s. But our focus is too often on test scores and getting kids “college and career ready.” We often neglect the important task of teaching young people the importance of compassion and the power it has to eliminate human suffering. Let me give but one example.
Speaking at Harvard University’s Commencement in 2007, Bill Gates told his audience, “I left Harvard with no real awareness of the awful inequities in the world—the appalling disparities of health, wealth, and opportunity that condemn millions of people to lives of despair.” He didn’t have to say it, because it was obvious, but he left elementary school, middle school and high school as well without this awareness.
My wife Brie Goolbis and I wrote a book, Young Enough to Change the World (Kalindi Press, 2015). In it we tell the stories of 15 young people, two of them only seven years old, whose compassion led them to create humanitarian projects that have positively changed lives and made our world better. And ... each of them did this before they even graduated from high school.
I tell you this to encourage you, teachers and parents to find stories in books, magazines and newspapers about young people whose compassion has led them to change the world. Have your students read these stories and as a class discuss how you and they can use your compassion to change the world.