Reading level, standardized test scores, college prep–more, better, faster. Repeat.

But what of the heart? There is so much to teach a child about the heart:

• How it breaks when someone you love doesn’t love you back
• How it thrills to find a kindred spirit
• How it is comforted when someone simply sits with you and shares space
• How it hurts when we don’t treat each other with compassion and kindness
• How it longs to connect
• How it knows what the brain often forgets–that we are all family

There is no standardized test for kindness, no flash cards for compassion, no prize for finding the lonely person and keeping them company. But these, too, are where a well-rounded education lies. On these lessons, too, depends our future.