My coworkers brought a news story to my attention.
From Yahoo!® News, I read an article of a woman whose late husband shot her point-blank in the face. She survived the shooting, but has since been living without a complete face. The article included a slide show of pictures that show a woman who was missing a nose and whose facial proportions were vastly different than those of most individuals.
Today, she has healed from a 22-hour facial transplant procedure (not simply reconstructive surgery, but a transplant!) to give her a new, functioning face.
She was quoted in the article as saying, "When somebody has a disfigurement and don't look as pretty as you do, don't judge them, because you never know what happened to them."
What does this have to do with online education? Every day we interact with other people—face-to-face and electronically. You might deposit a check at the bank and talk to the teller. You might walk across the street and make eye contact with a driver who's made a complete stop so that you can cross. I'm writing a blog and you're reading it. Though there is no immediate dialogue, my words are being interpreted by you and you are thinking about it. More and more I'm realizing how important the human connection can be, even if the connection is over Twitter, Facebook, or our community here.
I like her quote. I understand it as a simple request for people to look past features and physical flaws, to recognize the humanity of another.
I used to harshly assume that people who had misspellings on their class forum posts were careless or unintelligent. I don't make such assumptions anymore. It hasn't helped me in class by assuming someone is dumb for a few mistakes. If anything, my assumptions have kept me from learning about others and their life experiences. I remember classmates who were condescending. Did I want to talk to them? Heck no; they seemed mean and made me feel uncomfortable.
I am going to remember what I learned in kindergarten: play nice in the sandbox.