Cultivating Empathy in Our Classrooms
In my last blog post, I suggested that we need to help our students develop empathy through their daily education. This is a long-term, but necessary strategy toward building a more peaceful culture.
Throughout my book, Activate: Deeper Learning Through Movement, Talk, and Flexible Classrooms, I demonstrate how empathy can be built in the classroom. We achieve this in two key ways: (1) by modeling empathy and respect toward our students, and (2) by disrupting outdated methods of handling student-to-student conflicts.
Modeling Empathy and Respect for Students
When we teachers take the time to look each student in the eye, to learn their name properly and quickly, to make them feel seen and heard and cared for, we are modeling respect. Kids are more inclined to respect one another when they see us respecting each of them.
In every interaction with every student, teachers who show respect inspire their students to be respectful citizens. When the members of a community respect one another, they are preconditioned to demonstrate empathy when a community member is distressed or elated.
On the other hand, when students do not feel respected by their teachers, they may struggle to cultivate respect for their peers and be more inclined to feel isolated. Isolated individuals have a hard time managing their emotions or making meaningful connections with others. Their friendships tend to be based on an "us vs. them" mentality, rather than on an understanding that while some connections are deeper than others, all people have positive qualities and contributions to the community.
Our society is in dire need of deeper understanding and respect for the diversity abundant in human nature. We educators can help make that change by cultivating respect and empathy in our classrooms.
Disrupting Outdated Conflict Resolution Methods
When students have a disagreement, a teacher can mediate the discussion, coaching the students in the methods of peaceful conflict resolution. In this way, kids learn how to handle upsets, gain perspective, and maintain respect for one another even when their ideas clash.
Alternatively, a teacher can write up a report of "disruptive behavior" and send the students off to disciplinarians in the principal's office, where they're likely to be lectured and sentenced to some form of punishment, if that is the established culture of the school.
We could argue that mediating interpersonal conflicts in the classroom takes precious time away from curriculum, which is true, but that time will pay off exponentially as students learn to manage their disagreements peacefully down the line. Over time, there will be fewer instances of classroom disruption and students missing out on their education for all the time they spend in the principal's office.
By spending time mediating conflicts in the classroom, teachers empower students to learn and practice the language of peaceful negotiation, and in doing so, the kids build empathy. Effective peaceful conflict resolution requires participants to listen to one another, to understand each's perspective, and to consider their own actions in light of that understanding. This is empathy.
Restorative Justice If a student causes a hurt to another student or to the community, then teachers and school administrators can utilize restorative justice to heal that hurt. Granted, restorative justice takes more time than doling out punishments, but that time leads to a community steeped in respect for one another and empathy for all, whereas the quicker punishment model leads to a community steeped in resentment, festering hurts, and a general sense of injustice.
Any of our schools that continue to operate in the outdated authoritarian, industrialized model would do well to rebuild their operating structures and methods. The well-being of our entire country, of our democracy, depends on it!