Respect Quote by Neil Kurshan

“Walk a mile in my shoes” is the kind of phrase people toss off to end an argument, but Neil Kurshan tightens it into a parenting strategy: empathy isn’t a personality trait you either have or don’t, it’s a mental habit you rehearse. The intent is quietly corrective. It pushes back on the idea that respect is something you can lecture into kids with rules and punishments. Kurshan’s bet is that respect sticks only when children practice the imaginative work of switching vantage points, not just hearing about it.

The subtext is about training attention. Kids aren’t naturally cruel so much as naturally self-centered, because their world is still small and their feelings are loud. “Used to imagining” treats empathy like muscle memory: repeated, guided exercises that make it easier to pause before judging, to read tone, to recognize that other people’s reactions are often rooted in unseen pressures. That’s a more demanding standard than “be nice.” It asks adults to model perspective-taking in real time, especially when it’s inconvenient.

Contextually, the line lives in a culture that’s been outsourcing social skills to slogans. “Walk a mile” is familiar, almost clichéd; Kurshan redeems it by attaching it to childhood formation, where clichés can become rituals. The message also lands as an antidote to the algorithmic era’s constant sorting of people into teams. If respect grows from imagined proximity, then polarization thrives on the opposite: distance, caricature, and the refusal to picture an interior life.