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Compassion
Compassion is not a strategy—it’s a way of being with others. In early childhood settings, it reveals itself in tone of voice, in quiet pauses to listen, in how we respond to strong emotions, and how we hold conflict without shame. It’s not soft in a weak sense; it’s steady, spacious, and clear-eyed. It asks us to stay grounded in relationship, even in moments of rupture or resistance.
Unlike kindness, which may lean toward pleasing, or sympathy, which may create distance, compassion includes a willingness to be with discomfort. It holds boundaries with care, not instead of care. In practice, compassion looks like slowing down, protecting a child’s dignity in moments of struggle, and extending grace to ourselves as educators navigating the daily challenges of relational work.
It is not something we teach with posters or slogans. It is something we model, moment by moment, in how we speak, how we touch, how we wait, and how we begin again.
How It Connects to My Approach
Compassion lives at the heart of many traditions that shape our work:
- Contemplative education invites us to begin with presence. Compassion arises when we meet the moment as it is, without reactivity or grasping.
- Reggio Emilia centers relationship, co-responsibility, and the dignity of all participants. Listening is a form of compassion. Documentation, too, can become an act of care.
- Play-based learning reminds us that emotional safety is what allows children to take risks, explore boundaries, and engage fully in their learning.
- The Project Approach depends on relational trust and shared inquiry. When tensions arise in group work, compassion allows collaboration to deepen rather than collapse.
- Nature-based education extends compassion beyond the human world—into our relationships with insects, wind, trees, and place. It teaches care through immersion and attentiveness.
This approach is also deeply informed by Nonviolent Communication, which reframes conflict as an opportunity to hear the needs underneath behavior and to respond without punishment or blame. And from the Continuum Concept, we borrow the understanding that compassion begins in physical presence and trust—not in correction, but in connection.
References
- Rinaldi, C. (2006). In Dialogue with Reggio Emilia: Listening, Researching and Learning
- Jennings, P. A. (2015). Mindfulness for Teachers
- Rosenberg, M. (2003). Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life
- Salzberg, S. (1995). Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness
Glossary
- Pedagogical Presence – A way of being that centers full attention, ethical attunement, and relational steadiness in every interaction.
- Co-regulation – Supporting a child’s emotional nervous system through your own calm, responsive presence.
- Ethic of Care – A philosophy that emphasizes relational responsibility and the moral depth of care.
- Listening Pedagogy – A Reggio principle that treats listening as both a method and a stance—toward children, colleagues, and self.
Articles and Resources on This Site
A reflection on Maylie Scott’s teaching that “nothing is out of place,” exploring how loneliness can be met with mindful presence and compassion.
A tender portrait of emergent empathy and relational literacy, where a child's reading becomes an act of presence, not performance—honoring care beyond comprehension.
A quiet moment of a child reading to a sapling becomes a meditation on empathy, presence, and the unseen curriculum of relational, child-led learning in nature.
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