Empathy in the Classroom

empathy by Berkah Icon from the Noun Project

Teaching 6th grade is exciting in many different ways. The freshness of starting middle school is exhilarating and my students are eager to experience everything about it ... the good AND the bad.  They are enthusiastic about learning and they appreciate the responsibility and independence that Middle School requires of them. They are not jaded. However, 6th graders can be immature and inexperienced. Their abstract thinking skills are still developing (or just starting to develop!) and so they are still very literal about things. They don't listen and so repeating instructions takes up most of every class period. And they talk about poop. A lot.  But I've been teaching 6th grade for 12 years now and I can honestly say that there is nothing I would rather do. I love it. I love teaching 6th grade.  There is something so special about this year, about these hopeful beautiful children, that I don't want to leave.

Over the years I have noticed a growing pattern of disrespect and a general lack of kindness in the way that students interact with each other. It's disheartening and frankly, heartbreaking at times. And at the root of it is a lack of empathy. I think students don't always take the time to consider someone else's situation or viewpoint. They don't think about what another person is thinking or feeling or what they have been through, or not been through. They are not empathetic. And in the spirit of having a growth mindset about this, I will say ... they are not empathetic YET.

Elizabeth Soloman from www.ib-innovate.com has developed an Empathy Continuum.  The idea being that our goal as educators is to move students along this continuum, as "empathy is both the path and the destination" in an IB program.

This is something that can be addressed in schools. The presence of empathy has a direct impact on the culture of learning in a classroom. Students need opportunities to discuss and practice empathy. This can be something simple, like reflecting personally on a particular experience. Or if could be focused on understanding and respecting others in the classroom. These are ways I hope to cultivate empathy in my students next year.

Dr. Marilyn Price Mitchell has identified 6 Habits that can be used to develop empathy in our students. 

My reflections for each habit can be found by opening the speaker notes to the above embedded slides. I think trying to model these 6 habits could greatly increase the positive interactions between my students and set the tone of my classroom as an accepting, positive, empathetic community. My  goal is to create a community where students feel accepted, safe to take risks, and connected to others in a way that will nurture a desire to serve the surrounding community.