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Tag: compassion

Ash Wednesday was February 18. Ramadan began the following evening, on February 19. That means that as you're reading this, some of your Christian students are in the middle of a forty-day season of fasting and sacrifice, and some of your Muslim students are in the middle of a month-long fast that, depending on the day, has them going without food or water from before sunrise until after sunset. Those two groups are sitting in the same seats, turning in the same assignments, and taking the same exams.
Published on Leave a comment on What’s Going On: Faith, Hope, and the Classroom

I've been thinking about fasting lately because two of the world's major religious traditions are doing it simultaneously, right now, in your classroom.

A vibrant sunset in New Orleans reflecting over a calm canal. Deep orange and pink clouds stretch across the sky, with a large, puffy purple cloud centered above the horizon.
"New Orleans Sunset" by See1,Do1,Teach1, CCBY 2.0

Ash Wednesday was February 18. Ramadan began the following evening, on February 19. That means that as you're reading this, some of your Christian students are in the middle of a forty-day season of fasting and sacrifice, and some of your Muslim students are in the middle of a month-long fast that, depending on the day, has them going without food or water from before sunrise until after sunset. Those two groups are sitting in the same seats, turning in the same assignments, and taking the same exams.

I bring this up because I think most of us, if we stop and think about it, genuinely want to be the kind of teacher who knows what's going on in our students' lives — not to make excuses for them, but to understand them.

What Ramadan actually involves

For students observing Ramadan, the fast itself is only part of the picture. Many are also attending Tarawih prayers in the evening, which can run well past midnight, and waking before dawn for Suhoor, the pre-fast meal. A student who looks like they're barely keeping their eyes open in your 8 a.m. class on a Wednesday may have gone to sleep at 2 a.m. and been back up at 4:30. They're not being lazy or disengaged. They're practicing their faith and trying to be your student at the same time.

There's also a cognitive dimension worth knowing about. Fasting affects concentration, memory recall, and processing speed, particularly in the afternoon. A student sitting for an exam at 2 p.m. while fasting is doing so under conditions that are genuinely more demanding than usual. That's not an excuse — it's context.

Compassion isn't the opposite of rigor

I've written before about the assumptions we make about students and how those assumptions can inadvertently make things harder for the students who are already working the hardest. Religious observance is another one of those places where a small amount of awareness goes a long way.

You don't need to redesign your course. A brief acknowledgment, a bit of flexibility around exam timing where you can manage it, or even just letting a student step out for a few minutes — these are small things that communicate something important: that you see them as a whole person, not just a student ID number. That's not soft. That's good teaching.

It's not just Ramadan

Ramadan gets attention partly because of its length and visibility, but religious observances that create real scheduling conflicts for students happen throughout the year:

Lent, also currently underway (through April 2), is observed across many Christian traditions — Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist, and others. Practices vary, but the season carries genuine spiritual weight for students who observe it seriously.

Passover runs April 2–9 this year, overlapping with Easter on April 5 — a meaningful convergence. Seders on the first evenings can mean travel or late nights, and the dietary restrictions last the week.

Looking toward next fall, the Jewish High Holidays occur early in the fall semester. Rosh Hashanah is September 12–13; Yom Kippur is September 21, and involves a 25-hour fast. Students observing these days will miss class during the first few weeks of term — the weeks when we're building the foundation for everything that follows.

Durga Puja (October 17–21) and Diwali (November 8) are significant observances for Hindu students, often involving family travel and community commitments that compete with late-semester academic pressure.

And Shabbat, observed by Jewish students and some Seventh-day Adventist students from Friday evening through Saturday, can complicate weekend exams, Saturday office hours, or assignments due Friday night.

This isn't meant to be a comprehensive calendar — it's just a nudge to remember that the religious landscape of any given classroom is probably more diverse than it appears.

One simple thing

Consider adding a brief statement to your syllabus inviting students with religious observances to speak with you early in the semester, for example:

I recognize that religious observances may occasionally conflict with course requirements. If you anticipate a conflict, please reach out to me as early as possible so we can discuss options.

This puts the responsibility appropriately on the student while signaling that you're a reasonable adult they can actually talk to.

Xavier's mission calls us toward a more just and humane world. That work starts in how we treat the people in our classrooms — all of them, with all the fullness of who they are.

While we can hope that this Tuesday won’t bring “something awful,” we must recognize that it will likely feel even more charged than 2008 or 2016. With that in mind, I’ve been thinking about how to best support my students following this year’s election.
Published on Leave a comment on So Restless Indeed
The title for this blog post comes from Arcadia's song "Election Day," which has nothing whatsoever to do with the American political system. However, a 2021 study suggests that listening to 80s pop music can be an effective means of lowering anxiety.

Election Day in the U.S. is Tuesday, November 5—and it’s safe to say that most Americans are not only well aware of that fact but are also bracing for the emotionally charged days likely to follow. I’ve been reflecting on how to approach those expectations in my class next week.

I began teaching at Xavier in the fall of 2007, so I recall teaching on Wednesday, November 5, 2008, the day after Barack Obama was elected; I also remember teaching on Wednesday, November 9, 2016, the day after Donald Trump’s election. On both occasions, I was unprepared for the strong emotions expressed by my students. Both times, I ended up setting aside my planned activities to give students an opportunity to share what they were feeling. Was that the right decision? I’m not entirely sure. But in both instances, students seemed to appreciate my willingness to create a space for discussion.

According to Huston & DiPietro (2007), when responding to a stressful event, “an instructor’s response need not be complicated, time intensive, or even personalized.” Their study focused on faculty responses to collective tragedies, but their findings apply to other situations that bring up intense emotions. Students in their study often reported frustration when faculty ignored a major event and gratitude when instructors acknowledged that something impactful had occurred.

While we can hope that this Tuesday won’t bring “something awful,” we must recognize that it will likely feel even more charged than 2008 or 2016. With that in mind, I’ve been thinking about how to best support my students following this year’s election.

The Center for Teaching Excellence at Boston College encourages faculty to consider several factors when planning post-election classes:

  • Your comfort level: What are you comfortable discussing with students? Self-care is essential. Avoid engaging in topics that may elevate your own stress.
  • Student burnout: Are students able to engage in discussion? This has been a long, complex election year. Students might not have the cognitive or emotional energy to process the results immediately.
  • Connection to learning: How does this fit with the course content? For some students, discussing the election results might be more meaningful if there’s a clear link to course objectives.
  • Classroom community: How might this fit within your classroom’s culture? By now, you probably have a good sense of how your students engage with one another and their comfort level in discussing sensitive topics.

If any of these factors lead you to decide against dedicating an entire class to the election results, the team at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT) at the University of Michigan suggests a few smaller steps faculty can take:

  • Acknowledge the situation. By openly recognizing the election, we show students that we understand its impact on them. Huston & DiPietro (2007) found that students felt more unsettled when faculty didn’t respond to significant events at all.
  • Make learning adjustments. When students are stressed, their ability to learn can suffer. Consider temporarily easing your expectations. As Jin (2017) points out, external stressors can greatly hinder a student’s capacity to engage and retain new information.
  • Share campus resources. Most faculty aren’t trained as therapists, as Field (2023) reminds us. Sometimes the best support we can offer is to connect students with campus resources.

This election year, I won’t be in class on Wednesday, but I’ll let students know that they’re welcome to stop by my office for coffee and a friendly conversation. I’ll also be reducing the workload for the week, to give everyone a little more space to process the results—whatever they may be.

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