Perhaps one of the most stressful parts of teaching is how teachers feel the pressure to be their most ideal selves at all times. You never know what kind of issues you might be facing in the classroom: abuse, race, gender, drugs, socio-economic status and the intersectionality of multiple issues occurring simultaneously.
When an issue comes up, the students look to their teacher as a guide to navigate the storm of emotions that result. As a teacher, I find that I look to the person I want to be to answer these questions.
At all costs, I remain calm. I must choose my words carefully as to not aggravate the situation. I must prove to the students that I understand and acknowledge their feelings and perspectives. If I do not understand, I ask them questions that show them I care about them and trust that there is logic in their view.
Often, one student's perspective is harmful to another's. These are the most treacherous of waters to voyage. Often, I will find a way to show students that disagreements on a single issue does not have to result in disregarding each other completely. That there are ways to work around our differences and that it is important for us to maintain differences of opinion, because they facilitate different patterns in thinking and provide alternative solutions.
In math, I can show them this through simplified logic. But students will struggle to see how they can apply this idea to their current conflicts. I teach them to simplify their problems and reduce them to the smallest number of variables. I teach them to hold on to their unknowns and not worry too much about what the answer is. I teach them to discuss every step in their thinking process. I teach them how to put aside their fear and anxiety about finding the answers and how to focus on what they know until the rest of the solution becomes more clear. I teach them to care about the process, not the product.
I teach them that the end does not justify the means, that it is important to ask questions often and to question everything.
Such ideals could be taught in many a subject. I personally like the abstraction of math, I think it makes it easier to demonstrate ideas in their purest of forms, to organize the ideas and then share them with each other.
But students often struggle to make connections. As a teacher, I strive to be their guide; a spark in a room full of tinder. I look in their eyes, and I try over and over till I see the ideas catch and take hold.