The Virtue of Helping Old People
It is a general policy in most schools that children are “left to their own devices” to find their way through the world. In some ways, it is an understandable position to take as the idea of teaching children about responsibility and what to do when they are faced with challenges seems an oxymoron. However, leaving children behind does not allow them to learn lessons that they will carry into adulthood.
It is obvious that children need supervision and guidance in order to help themselves and help others. Children’s books are full of examples of children learning to help and overcome challenges. The fact that these stories seem to have a universal message should be a lesson to parents everywhere – children must be encouraged to help themselves and others.
This is no simple matter and many teachers are stumped at how to encourage children to help themselves and others. It is surprising to learn that few of the teachers that you admire and respect think of encouraging children to help others as part of their job description. In this article, I will describe an approach to teaching compassion and kindness to children, which has worked for me and my family and that is a lesson to all of us.
The second thing to be said about kindness is that it does not come naturally to most children. We parents often assume that our children will automatically take up the mantle of helping when they are able to help themselves. The truth is that, though children may instinctively help others in certain situations, it takes a conscious effort on our part to instill the virtue of kindness into their hearts. Teaching kindness, however, is much easier than teaching generosity and concern. Part of the difficulty comes from the fact that we are rarely taught about these qualities in our schools. Those of us who are fortunate enough to attend schools which teach these skills will often spend years passing lessons on from one teacher to another. We expect nothing less than excellence to achieve the virtuous traits.
The basic teaching comes from listening carefully to children in class and paying attention to their needs and desires. Parents need to remind themselves of the importance of respect, compassion, and kindness in a classroom. Children also need to feel as though their parents listen to them attentively, understand them, and give them instructions which they understand.
Through mindfulness, our children will learn to listen to their hearts. For most children, kindness means being understanding and compassionate. And while children have heart, they also have ears. They can hear us well enough to pick up on what we are saying without being distracted by their own self-centeredness.
There is one lesson to be learned about kindness which is often missed. As a parent, you need to understand the desires and needs of your children. You should know what they want to do with their lives. In fact, you should learn to hear their desires and concerns.
Finally, you should let your children help themselves. This is the first of the virtues of kindness. Letting children help themselves brings them together and teaches them to build on their strengths and be humble.
Most people worry that allowing children to help themselves will damage their self-confidence, but this is a false fear that cannot stand up to careful observation. For every accomplishment which you can achieve by yourself, there are countless gifts that you can bring to the world by helping others. teaching children to help themselves.
Children need to be taught to use compassion, kindness, and love in everyday life. Without such help, they will quickly lose what it means to be human.
