The "C" Word

I was sitting in the living room, working quietly on my computer, while Timmy was participating in his Zoom class. The topic was for the lesson was empathy and kindness. It was a relatively benign first grade lesson with a book reading followed by a class discussion. Empathy is a difficult topic to tackle in a classroom, and I'm sure that the issues are only compounded with distance learning. 

I could tell that the teacher was struggling to gain class participation. She was asking direct questions and receiving only one or two word replies from her students. I've been in that situation, and I understand the frustration. In what I assume to be an attempt to spark a conversation, she offered a scenario.

"Think of when you see somebody in a wheelchair. You should feel sad for them because they are crippled. You should also be nice to them because they can't walk." Before I could turn my head, I heard Timmy slam down his mute button. He immediately chimed in with his perspective. 

"You shouldn't use that word because crippled is a bad word. Using that word is mean and it isn't nice. You should be nice to everybody not just people who can't walk."

Sounding stunned, his teacher thanked Timmy for the reminder and promptly redirected to another student. My little advocate remained on mute for the remainder of the lesson (which is nothing out of the norm for him.) I'm not a proponent of correcting teachers publicly, but in this situation I was so proud of my little guy. He seized an opportunity to educate and he did it with passion and respect.