Compassion 
What is
compassion?
- Compassion is the desire to ease others'
suffering.
- Compassion is a sympathetic awareness of
another' distress combined with a desire to alleviate it. Kindness
and caring are shown.
- Service and generosity are ways that
compassion can be demonstrated.
Kind compassionate
children:
- Recognize and express appreciation for
others' talents and skills
- Put others' needs before their
own
- Help others because they want
to
- Listen and provide sympathy
- Show kindness without expecting
rewards
- Tell and show others they
care
- Share
- Recognize and help those less fortunate
than themselves
- Try to make the world a better
place
You show compassion when you
...
- Comfort a friend whose mother has been
taken to the hospital
- Bring blankets and food to a family in need
in your community
- Volunteer at a senior citizen nursing
home
- Take action and stop someone who is being
cruel to an animal
- Listen when people confide in
you
- Help out at the Special
Olympics
- Bring ice cream to a friend who has had his
or her tonsils removed
- Can understand why your best friend is
depressed about a divorce
- Send a donation to help people starving in
a foreign country
- Tutor a younger child who is having trouble
in school
Tips on becoming more
compassionate and caring
- Be a good listener
- Look people directly in the eye when they
speak
- Look for kids at school who are being left
out and inviting them to join in activities
- Stick up for someone being
teased
- Each week, do one nice thing for a friend
or family member
Proverbs and
maxims
- The course of human history is determined,
not by what happens in the skies, but by what takes place in our
hearts. (Sir Arthur Keith)
- Never, if possible, lie down at night
without being able to say: I have made one human being, at least,
a little wiser, a little happier, or a little better this day.
(Charles Kingsley)
More quotes on compassion and
kindness
- Kindness gives birth to kindness.
(Sophocles)
- Be nice to people on your way up because
you'll meet them on your way down. (Wilson Mizner)
- Kindness is a language which the deaf can
hear and the blind can read. (Mark Twain)
- Kindness in words creates confidence.
(Lao-tzu)
Heroes and
heroines
- Dalai Lama - is the spiritual leader of
Tibet who continues to speak of forgiveness, justice, and living
together in harmony.
- Mother Teresa - worked in the slums of
Calcutta, India, helping and nursing the poor and sick. She had a
great reverence for human life.
- Jane Addams - founded Hull House, a
settlement house for the poor, and worked for child labor laws,
safe working conditions, better housing, and women's suffrage or
right to vote.
- Father Damien - became a resident priest
for those suffering from Hansen's disease on
Molokai.
Put compassion into
action
- Be friendly to someone who needs a
friend.
- Do helpful things at home without being
asked.
- Be generous with your time and your
belongings.
- Create and participate in a litter control
program.
- Plan and participate in food
drives.
- Look for ways to help in any situation
without being asked.
- Put someone else's need before your
own.
- Look for ways to help in your
community.
- Try to understand why a family member or
friend is sad.
- Forgive someone who has hurt
you.
- Talk with your family about the problems of
the homeless and find a way to help.
- Try to understand someone who you disagree
with or don't like.
Community service
ideas
- Recycle aluminum cans. Put the money earned
into a local food bank.
- Offer to help an elderly neighbor with
their chores.
- Take a meal to someone who is
ill.
- Write a letter or send a card of compassion
to a victim of some recent tragedy.
- Create a school bulletin board where
students and teachers can recognize people who have demonstrated
great compassion.
- Choose a historical figure who represents
compassion. Write and perform a short play about the
person.
BOOKLIST ON
COMPASSION
For grades K-3
Beauty and the Beast
Big Al - Clements
The Big Orange Splot - Pinkwater
Dribbles - Heckert
Jamaica Tag-Along - Havill
Mean Soup - Everitt
Mrs. Katz and Tush - Polacco
The Mountain That Loved a Bird - McLerran
Now One Foot, Now the Other - dePaola
The Rainbow Fish - Pfister
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day -
Viorst
Amelia Bedelia - Parrish
Angel Child, Dragon Child - Surat
Crow Boy - Yashima
The King Who Rained - Gwynne
Old Henry - Blos
Owl Moon - Yolen
Through Grandpa's Eyes - MacLachlan
All I See - Rylant
Fly Away Home - Bunting
The Giving Tree - Silverstein
Zoo - Brown
Princess Diana - Stammers
What Did Leonette Forget: a Book About Being Thoughtful -
Jackson
The Ant Bully - Nickle
Eleanor - Cooney
Love Your Neighbor: Stories of Values and Virtues -
Dobrin
Light: Stories of a Small Kindness - Carlstrom
Lucy's Picture - Moon
The Wednesday Surprise - Bunting
Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge - Fox
The Kindness Quilt - Wallace
Library Lion - Knudsen
The Little Red Hen - Pinkney
For Grades
3-6
Charlotte's Web - White
The Children's Book of Virtues - Bennet
The Empty Schoolhouse - Carlson
A Wrinkle in Time - L'Engle
Florence Nightingale
Mother Teresa
The Great Gilly Hopkins - Paterson
Kids' Random Acts of Kindness
The Happy Prince - Ray
Shoebag - Jones
Belle Prater's Boy - White
Blubber - Blume
Pink and Say - Polacco
Visiting Miss Pierce - Derby
Back to Values
Education