Teachers build empathy, one book at a time
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Stacy Teicher Khadaroo Staff writer
A circle of 10th -graders on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana immersed themselves in a deep discussion about race and how people can learn or unlearn prejudice.
That crystallizing moment 鈥� during a discussion of Harper Lee鈥檚 鈥淭o Kill a Mockingbird鈥� 鈥� came near the end of the semester last winter, but sometimes that鈥檚 how long it can take to see the result of a strong effort to embed empathy and trust in the classroom, says Anna Baldwin, their English teacher at Arlee High School.
About 70 percent of her students are Native American, and 鈥渁 lot of them talked about how they are treated when they go places off the reservation.鈥�
鈥淥ne student brought up the Philando Castile killing from last summer,鈥� she says, a connection that struck her because the police-shooting death in Minnesota had been in the news several months back.聽
鈥淲e were talking about how people can break out of some of the negative belief habits that they have,鈥� Ms. Baldwin recalls. 鈥淲hat they were saying was super powerful.... Things you can鈥檛 hear adults around today say.鈥�
Researchers have raised concerns about a drop in young people鈥檚 empathy over time and聽 everything from bullying to civic apathy.聽So a growing number of educators are including empathy among a range of social-emotional goals they believe will bolster not only children鈥檚 development聽but their academic performance as well.聽
How teachers work to build that into their classrooms can be as varied as the teachers themselves.
For Baldwin鈥檚 school district, empathy has been a focal point partly because of the area鈥檚 high rate of addiction and suicide.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really important to build those relationships.... It might be the one thing that gets some of our kids through 鈥� that relationship with a caring adult,鈥� she says.
At the start of the school year, 鈥渟tudents are reluctant, they feel nervous,鈥� Baldwin says, even though most know one another.聽 So she starts off with low-risk opportunities to talk in small groups about various topics. Then they鈥檒l share something from the group to the rest of the class. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e not naming names ... [but] they basically have to call out one of their group mates in a positive way.鈥�
She moves on to Socratic circles, where some students in the center of the circle discuss a question while others observe and reflect on how they鈥檙e communicating. Over time, they become comfortable sharing things that are 鈥渞eally personal and really deep,鈥� says Baldwin, the 2014 State Teacher of the Year in Montana.
There鈥檚 also an educational equity component at stake.
鈥淥ne of the inequitable aspects [for] students who live on a reservation or in a rural area is they don鈥檛 have access to other people,鈥� she says. Literature is her vehicle for giving students 鈥渢he opportunity to at least practice learning about and caring about people that are not like them.鈥�
Her small multicultural literature class once read 鈥淎 Thousand Splendid Suns鈥� by Khaled Hosseini. It was their favorite book because they had to learn a lot about religion and about Pakistan鈥檚 history and culture to understand it.
鈥淚 felt confident that they could go off into the world,... meet somebody of a different faith or a different culture, and maybe be more open-minded towards them because of just having read that book,鈥� she says.聽
'Connect to what is not tested'
Empathy and equity are also inextricably linked for Josh Parker, a journalism teacher and instructional coach at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Washington, the nation鈥檚 first public high school for black students.
鈥淚t鈥檚 awfully hard to achieve equity if you aren鈥檛 bridging the gap of empathy 鈥� between cultures, between races, and also between students and teachers,鈥� he says.
A teacher鈥檚 empathy for students is key because it helps them 鈥渢o connect to what is not tested in a student鈥�,聽 their life experience, maybe what happened that morning that they鈥檙e still trying to get over,鈥� he says. Then students connect better to the academic work.聽
Mr. Parker, the 2012 Maryland State Teacher of the Year, starts by surveying students about their interests, giving them prompts for writing about various topics, and having them speak in class about what鈥檚 trending in the news that interests them.聽
If empathy has an enemy, he says, it鈥檚 comparison. In high school, 鈥渆verybody wants to know where they stack up,鈥� he says. But teachers can help them see similarities as well, and that 鈥渢he differences don鈥檛 have to be stacked on top of one another, but that they can be on a horizontal plane.鈥澛�
Literature can also open students鈥� eyes to suffering, and how people cope or overcome it. He once taught middle-schoolers with the book 鈥淪adako and the Thousand Paper Cranes,鈥� by Eleanor Coerr, and found them hungry to know more of what happened and why.
鈥淚t helped them understand and empathize with the plight of those that were in Japan as innocent bystanders, but also the costs of peace,鈥� Parker says.
One of his lessons focused on a chapter in 鈥淭he Autobiography of Malcolm X,鈥� about his break with the Nation of Islam a year before he was assassinated. 鈥淭hey just kind of marveled.... Kids were saying,... he must have felt really betrayed. They were just beginning to understand ... that sometimes steadfast commitment to a cause can end up leaving you injured.鈥�
One of Parker鈥檚 goals is to 鈥渋ncrease empathy from student to teacher, and help them understand the immense amount of work teachers do ... and that they [as students] play a role in helping teachers be productive.鈥�
Teaching is too complex to be boiled down to one trait, but empathy is often 鈥渨hat matters most,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the binding tie that makes it all worthwhile and makes teaching transformative.鈥�
A variety of resources are available for teachers and parents looking to boost young people鈥檚 understanding of and caring about people different from themselves. Here are just a few examples:
- by the nonprofit Ashoka聽
- An for Grades 6 to 8 from Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center聽
- The brand new by The National Network of State Teachers of the Year (NNSTOY)
