This document discusses important life lessons that students should learn both inside and outside the classroom. It emphasizes learning how to fail and persevere through challenges. Students should also be taught empathy, compassion for others, and self-respect. Teachers and parents are encouraged to provide opportunities for children to express their feelings in a safe environment and learn not to use negative emotions to harm others.

1. Life Lessons All Students Should LearnLife Lessons All Students Should Learn

2. •After a successful and fulfilling career as a television advertising executive,
Stefania Shaffer studied to become a teacher. Her first book, Heroes Don't
Always Wear Capes, is a fictional account of the life lessons one student
learned from kindergarten through her senior year. Stefania Shaffer received
her teaching credentials from San Francisco State University.

3. •In between encouraging children to go out for extracurricular activities and get
their homework finished before supper, parents and teachers should do their
best to teach lessons that help prepare students for life beyond the classroom.
Learning how to fail is an excellent example of an chief life lesson. Even
straight-A students are bound to botch a presentation or high-stakes meeting
one day. Learning how to shrug off defeat and keep on trying is a vital life skill.

4. •Empathy is an equally important life lesson. Despite many classroom activities
requiring students to work in groups, the outcome of most exams forces
students to strike out on their own and look out for themselves. Grades should
never take priority over compassion for fellow human beings. Even small
displays of concern and attention, such as saying "please" and apologizing for
jostling another student in the hallway, plants the seeds for a life of
consideration for others.

5. •As children learn to care for others, they should also learn that they deserve to
be loved and respected as individuals. Teachers and parents should give
children a safe place where they can express, confront, and work through all of
their feelings—regardless of whether they are good, bad, or ugly. Children
should also be taught self-respect through respecting others; they should be
shown not to use bad and ugly feelings as weapons.

6. •As children learn to care for others, they should also learn that they deserve to
be loved and respected as individuals. Teachers and parents should give
children a safe place where they can express, confront, and work through all of
their feelings—regardless of whether they are good, bad, or ugly. Children
should also be taught self-respect through respecting others; they should be
shown not to use bad and ugly feelings as weapons.