I had my first official introduction to Compassionate Systems on my 6 week practicum. My practicum was at a school where the majority of students were reactive and had high needs. My mentor had been participating throughout the year in monthly meetings for “SEY2KT” (or “Strengthening Early Years to Kindergarten Transitions”). A core concept of these meetings was compassion. The meetings were put on by BC Compassionate Systems Leadership Network. Their website states “Compassionate Systems Leadership (CSL) is an approach to leadership that explicitly builds skills and practices in three interconnected domains: self (building a practice of personal reflection, mindfulness and compassion), each other (building authentic relationships that can support generative conversations), and the system (developing skills and capabilities to use tools that honour the complexity of the work that needs to be done).

There’s quite a few pillars to compassionate systems. Compassion, Diversity or Perspective Taking, Generative Space, Leadership, Present Awareness, Relationships and Reflection, Systems Thinking, and Well-being. All of these components work together to enable teacher, student, administration, community, and systems to operate from a lens of compassion. 

I was so inspired by these meetings. The room was full of primary teachers from the district. Every person there was there for their students and their community. They were advocating for compassionate systems for all of their students in a universally designed way, to have compassionate systems in place to catch their hard to reach students and families, while boosting all families. Looking around that room, I saw the kind of teacher I wanted to be. I wanted to be the teacher who leads with “courageous kindness”. I want to be the teacher who experiences the suffering of my students, and does whatever I can to alleviate it, while also looking after myself. 

I saw the principles of compassionate systems being naturally implemented in my practicum school. And despite the high needs, the people in that building were showing up not just to work everyday, but they were showing up for their students. Throughout this inquiry, I seek to find the real world results of compassionate systems. I’m curious for how exactly compassionate practices have an impact on students, not just their learning but also their well-being. I’ll be interviewing people trained in compassionate systems, as well as people who are not. I’ll be doing research, and trying to find real world applications. 

I’m so excited for this journey, thank you for coming along!