One day, I was teaching a class of freshmen in Wyoming. Among them were two old men who were seated at the back and looked like they were in a lot of pain with every step they took. Although they seemed to have no potential, I was polite to them and tried to help them in any way I could.
That evening I found out that one of these men was the chairman of the board of directors of one of the biggest companies in the world. He thanked me for my kindness and effort and later invited me to deliver lectures to his executives, managers, and employees on sanity, integrity, and the workplace. In our profession as educators, we spend most of our time with people who have difficulties with tasks that are easy for us. Our higher abilities may take us to the ego pitfalls, which make us less polite to other people.
To avoid this, I always remind myself that my classes are full of professional chefs, pianists, ballet dancers, marathon runners, expert swimmers, mothers of five children, CEOs, doctors, massage therapists, and many others. Yes, I can do and teach yoga well, but every single one of my students has something that I may never have. Understanding that every student is not the crumpled body that we see in front of us helps to reduce our ego and let the kind side in us come out. It is important to be kind to one another and respect each other because being kind is respecting and respecting is being kind.
However, this does not mean that we pamper the student or simply do what the student wants. Kindness is about assisting the student to learn fast with minimal negative impact. It is about getting the most amount of improvement in the shortest possible time, with the least cruelty.