Compassion

Although the experience that I am about to describe isn't an instance of a teacher showing me compassion in response to some traumatic experience but rather an example of a teacher who was consistently compassionate.  During my senior year in high school I was taking a few AP classes that were quite challenging, including AP English Literature.  I was also participating in sports and music and therefore was quite busy.  I was amazed on the first day of AP English when my teacher, Ms. Smith, told us that if we had other tests around the date that a paper was due to talk to her and she would gladly give the student an extension.  I had never had teachers who were willing to be flexible in order to help students who were particularly busy.  It turned out that I never had to ask for an extension, but the fact that she so willingly offered showed a great deal of compassion.  This class proved to be one of my most difficult but because of the understanding and compassion that my teacher showed the class I had a great respect for Ms. Smith's ideas.  Ms. Smith would also make the class her delicious brownies around the time of a big test which showed that she understood and was compassionate about how stressful a student's senior year can be, with so much about to change.  Ms. Smith showed me that a tough teacher can be a compassionate teacher as well and I believe that this is critical when trying to make a difference in students' lives.