Saturday, September 28, 2013

My Virtues



During our last class session we discussed our top virtues.  We read a chapter about virtues and then did an inventory to discover our own top virtues.  I am amazed at how accurate these tests can be.  After completing the inventory, I found myself pretty consistent across the board.  The area that I scored the highest was Empathy.  When I read more about the virtue of empathy I feel it did a pretty good job describing me.  An empathetic person is sensitive, caring, appreciative, compassionate and connects well with people.  The next areas that I scored high in were enthusiasm, imagination and humility.  The area where I scored the lowest was courage.  I am not very good at being aggressive and standing up for myself or others.  I don’t like to stand out in a crowd and I’m not always as vocal as I should be.
If you’ve been following my older posts, you’ve probably read the word AGAPE.  Again, the acronym stands for Association, Generativity, Adaptation, Presence, & Engagement.  During our last weekend class we focused on Presence.  Presence and the virtue of empathy go together very nicely.  Some key words for presence are purposeful, empathetic, love-centered, and relationship building.  Some examples of what they look like in action are: community building, coaching, authentic learning, inviting environment, and respectful listeners.  Presence is building a purposeful and meaningful life through critical self-reflection.  Its implications for me as a SMU learner are critical self-reflection in an environment where risk-taking is encouraged.  Its implications for my students are teaching each other strategies and how to adapt. 
One of the last activities that we did in class was a community building activity to share our complements with others.  We each got a piece of paper and had to write our name at the top.  We then taped it to our back and walked around.  We would write kind words to others on their backs.  The really neat thing to see are the comments that others wrote on my paper correspond very closely with my top virtues.  Thanks friends for brightening my day!



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