A lesson in compassion

By Lacey Klingensmith

I recently witnessed a troubling scene and it still lingers in my mind, which has regrettably become a commonplace occurrence in many contemporary societies.

After giving alms to an elderly homeless man, I stepped in line to attend the arrival of the next subway train and suddenly caught sight of a heart-breaking image reflected in the glass door: A group of children stood huddled nearby, and one of them slyly withdrew an old movie ticket from his pocket. He mockingly gestured placing the stub into the humbly extended hand of the poor man who was kneeling face-down on the floor. The boy repeatedly nudged his friends to challenge them to the dare while they pointed and laughed in encouragement. Then he stuck out his tongue at the man and pinched his nose to suggest perceiving an offensive smell. I found myself completely taken aback by this blatant display of insensitivity.

If I were cynical, I'd assume that it is simply for lack of maturity that children are not yet capable of feeling pity or empathy for others. I might seek to ease my worried conscience with ``boys will be boys," but truthfully I'd be hard-pressed to believe that an old clich? can excuse this type of behavior.

Granted, there may be certain rites of passage for children that entail provocations to commit valorous deeds, but since when has prodding one's peers to act cruelly toward another human being become part of the tradition? After having witnessed other similar instances, I'm seriously beginning to wonder who, or what, is instilling these negative attitudes in our youth.

Shall we blame yet another issue on media overexposure, which we usually fault for the majority of our social ills? I don't watch much television, but I'm fairly certain that, if only for the sake of being politically correct (and to avoid a potential lawsuit), it wouldn't be in the best interest of most prime-time networks to air programs encouraging this type of discriminatory behavior anyway. From whom, or what, are our children learning it, then? From no one ― and that is precisely the problem.

If early childhood specialists haven't stressed it enough already, let's not forget that our children are extremely impressionable. This means that the way we carry ourselves, what we say, what we do, and most importantly, what we ``don't" say or do, has a lasting impact on their social and emotional development, placing each one of us under a significant obligation to be mindful of the influence we exert on these sensitive observers. Our failure to instruct the youth on appropriate attitudes to show toward those who are different or disadvantaged leaves them ill-equipped to handle unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations and may have devastating future consequences by breeding an emerging generation of insensate, apathetic individuals.

With all the emphasis that is now placed on education in affluent societies, we are witnessing an unprecedented fervor for knowledge consumption. So many parents devote countless hours assisting their children with homework and acting as study coaches, while numerous articles intently focus on the issue of skyrocketing private education costs, concerns over unqualified teachers or corrupt administrators, and the mounting pressure on students to perform well on entrance exams.

Yet for all the attention the education system receives, there remains an equally critical aspect of learning that we continuously overlook. Should our children receive the highest math and science aptitude scores to gain admittance to top universities at the expense of being emotionally, and humanistically, deficient?

The cultivation of the intellect is an excellent virtue to be sure, but let us show our children that we also have faith in their ability to understand the profound and complex emotions which are couched in their hearts, waiting to be nurtured by our loving guidance and instruction. For the very core of their being, let us not forget the tantamount necessity of a lesson in compassion.

The writer is working as an English teacher in Korea and can be reached at lnkling@hotmail.com.