Learning Important Words
All of these words are important and similar to each other. They all have different meanings, but they are connected to one another. You might say they are all in the same family. Let’s learn all about respect, empathy, compassion, and consent together.
Showing respect to someone means you act in a way that shows you care about their feelings. You might respect your family members, your teacher, and your friends. We often show respect by treating others the way that we want to be treated.
Empathy is being able to understand how someone else might be feeling about a situation. For example, some people might me excited to try something new, and others might be nervous. Empathy is noticing that your friend my not be excited like you and understanding why feel that way.
Compassion is when we help someone who needs it. We show compassion with our actions. If you are excited about trying something new, but your friend is nervous, you might ask if they want to hold your hand to make them feel better or safer.
Consent means asking someone’s permission before you:
When asking permission or consent, you must listen and accept the answer that you are given. For example: if you ask to play with a friend’s toy, they might tell you that they will share it with you after they are done playing with it. This means, you can play with it in the future, you should not pressure or make them give it to you sooner.
Asking for consent is easy. But you must accept the answer that you are told. No answer means no.
