How to Appreciate Your Fellow Students in the Class?

The atmosphere in almost any classroom is almost inevitably volatile. Of course, with so many individual personalities, habits, and opinions all snuggled into one class, it is not uncommon to find tempers flying and words being thrown around without a care.

Young and adolescent students can be quite insensitive when it comes to their classmates. It is only when they get a little more mature than students realize the importance of being kind, understanding, and appreciative of fellow students in the classroom. 

Read More: International Students Should Switch Off Phone During Classroom

What Does Appreciating Fellow Students Mean?

To appreciate someone means to recognize and acknowledge the good qualities or good work which is being done by them. Appreciating, someone can act as a great morale booster, giving them more self-confidence, assurance, and motivation to become a better worker and also a better person. 

A classroom is where young people spend most of their waking hours. It is the place where you go to learn new things- not just in books, but also in real-life skills. 

Rightfully appreciating a fellow student, is a kind skill to learn. It allows you to acknowledge and appreciate a fellow student’s skills and talents, without allowing negative emotions like jealousy and insecurity to come over you. 

Read More: How Can Students Avoid a Mental Breakdown?

Of course, jealousy and insecurity are prevalent emotions that come over young students in the classroom. However, an excellent way to recognize and overcome these emotions is to practice the art of appreciation. 

How Can You Learn to Appreciate Your Fellow Students?

As children, appreciation comes easily. You feel happy about something or someone, and you don’t hold back when trying to emote your gratitude.

However, as we get older, we get clouded by other negative emotions and judgments. Getting in touch with our past, the kind self can be a little bit of a challenge at first, but it is not impossible.

Here are a few things you can do:

1. Learn to Recognize Other Talents

To appreciate, you must first recognize and acknowledge. For this, you need to become more observant. It is quite common for young students to get caught up in their affairs in the bubbles they create around their world. However, learning to appreciate your fellow students means looking outside your little bubble. 

If your classmate has shown their talents in the form of their work, activities, achievements, musical or artistic talents, the very first thing you can do is congratulate them for it! It does not have to be a vast speech or a handwritten note- a simple Job Well Done works great too! 

2. Sweep Away Jealousy

Jealousy is a universal emotion. It is often followed by feelings of insecurity, resentment, bitterness, and anger. All of these are incredibly toxic emotions. Although it is not entirely unheard of to feel jealous of your classmates, you can also learn to teach yourself to unlearn the emotion of jealousy slowly. 

It is essential to recognize that each individual has their talents. While your fellow student might be a marvellous artist, you might be excellent in academia, or cooking, or singing.

Read More: How Students Can Improve Their Intuition?

Surely, there is no need for competition. Merely becoming a master of your trade and learning to appreciate others for their talents is a great life skill. 

3. Learn Healthy Competition

When you are in school, you will most definitely face a lot of competition. Be it in your academics, sports, debates, art exhibits, and much more. Unhealthy competition can easily creep in, leading to a bitter environment that is not healthy for any student. 

During these times, it can be a good practice to appreciate your fellow competitors. It helps to boost everyone’s morale, while at the same time creating a comfortable environment of competition, rather than a hostile atmosphere. 

4. Building Empathy

Empathy is one of the most basic emotions that a human being can possess. Unfortunately, it is not an emotion that every single individual possesses freely. The good news is- you can learn to build empathy. 

Building empathy for your fellow students immediately allows you to recognize the hard work which they have put into honing in their skills and talents and doing some good practice- be it in school or outside school.

By building empathy, you understand deeply what the other individual has gone through to get to where they are. With this kind of deep understanding, you are also able to appreciate the outcome of their efforts naturally. Otherwise, any appreciation becomes quite superficial.

5. Don’t Compare 

Young people (or even adults, actually), often get into a vicious circle of comparing themselves to others around them, losing their self-esteem in the process, and building unhealthy emotions of jealousy. 

There is just one way out of this circle- to stop always comparing yourself to others. Recognizing each individual’s talent, along with your abilities, is the only way to become more appreciative of others as well as your skills. 

Start by appreciating yourself!

Learning to empathize with fellow students, recognizing negative emotions, and learning to deal with them healthily is very important. These are essential life skills that can be learned in school.

School is the place where you end up meeting the most amount of people, developing your personality, and shaping yourself into an individual. Appreciating your fellow students, not just for their accomplishments, but also for only being good people and good friends, is an excellent characteristic to build in yourself. 

Of course, it doesn’t come easy. There is always a chance of mockery, ridicule, or just being shot down by others. Nevertheless, learning the skill of appreciation can go a long way in life, shaping you to become more empathetic and a better human being.

Human interaction is a skill that is learned over time, and to get good at it. It is imperative to start as soon as possible! Start appreciating your fellow students for their skills and accomplishments, and you will see the same being returned to you as well.