Compassion

Compassion is “helping those who are hurting.”

Compassion begins with sympathy, which is seeing someone’s pain. It is noticing a student who skins his knee or a friend who hurts her arm. It is being alert to a weary co-worker or a stranger who needs assistance.

Compassion also includes empathy, which is feeling someone’s pain. Once you notice an injury, empathy means you imagine how much it hurts. This creates a feeling of duty, responsibility, and sometimes urgency to help find a remedy.

This brings us to the full meaning of compassion, which is doing something to relieve someone’s pain. It is not enough to see needs and feel badly for those who are hurting. Compassion means getting involved, investing in others, and finding ways to “bear someone’s burden” in order for healing to occur.

I Will:

1. Notice when others are hurting.
2. Stop to help.
3. Take time to listen.
4. Do what I can.
5. Be kind, regardless of differences.

Discussion Starters:

• When have you been sick or injured? How did others help you?
• What does it mean to be a "good neighbor" when you see someone in need?
• How can you show compassion to someone who is being picked on, teased, bullied, or harrassed by other students?
• Sometimes compassion means showing "tough love." What do you think this means? Can you think of an example?

(Permission granted to reproduce this lesson for educational use. Credit: CharacterFirstEd.com) 

Downloads

Supplement the curriculum with these reproducible sheets.
(Click each link to open or save PDF)

• Compassion Cube Activity
• Family Connection
• Family Connection - Spanish
• Florence Nightingale Story
• Zebra Coloring Page
• Zebra Stripes Activity