Thoughtfulness and Understanding - Byju P. Joseph

Thoughtfulness is a quality to think about others and their feelings. It is the ability to think about the

impact of our words and actions towards others. Those people who have this quality always desire good for others. They are always ready to help others. They consider others more than us. It leads to empathy, kindness and caring. Thoughtfulness is mostly influenced by emotional aspects while understanding if we consider it is somewhat different which is in terms of intellectual levels.

Understanding is the deep knowledge of something or somebody. It is the result of the correlation between previous knowledge and present knowledge. At the same time, we can define it as the ability to analyze or evaluate something. Different people have different levels of understanding. 

Understanding is an art and it plays a major role in each and every relationship to keep it stable under various circumstances. Understanding is time-bound and it needs patience. It is human nature that we desire others' attention on us and we like it very much. We want others to understand us and agree with our opinions. At the same time, if we want to understand the reality and practicability of this desire, we should think about others by assuming that we are in place of them. Then our understanding level will increase. It goes deeper and deeper and that is thoughtfulness exactly. In this way on the basis of our thoughtfulness, others' understanding level also will increase. Those who understand us are the ones who want us in their lives at every time. 

Nowadays disputes and conflicts among people are very common which are due to the lack of understanding of each other. Better communications and the use of other resources to make them understand them help to resolve these problems. Better communication leads to better understanding and strong relationships. We being social beings, strong relationships with everyone are very important for success in any field. Understanding, caring and empathy are the ingredients for a strong relationship. 

In a classroom mutual understanding is very important. As educators, we should understand the students deeply. What they need, how they are, their ability, their present condition, their grasping power, their interest etc. In this way, there are so many factors that we should consider to deal with them effectively. We should know what we are teaching in the classroom. At the same time, the students should understand us and what we are going to teach or what we are teaching. In this way in a classroom understanding towards each other is very important for better learning outcomes. 

Byju P. Joseph

The Fabindia School

bjh@fabindiaschools.in