...Learning Through Empathy

This week, the most unqualified, undeserving individual that I can think of was confirmed as the Secretary of Education. Just the prospect of her being in charge of my career and more importantly my students’ futures has had me thinking for the past few months: what makes a good teacher?

I ask this question a lot, of course, in my efforts to be the best I can be for my students. Let’s think about what great teachers do:

• ·         Great teachers build relationships with all their students.
• ·         Great teachers make students want to learn.
• ·         Great teachers make learning visible and purposeful for their students.
• ·         Great teachers make connections to students’ real lives and future careers.
• ·         Great teachers engage all students by catering to their specific needs.

Of course teachers are responsible for teaching content. We have curriculum we’re expected to help our students understand and grow from. We have standards that we have to live up to, and students are expected to improve in various ways while in our care.

But as I think about my list of what makes a “great teacher,” I find that empathy rather than content stands out as a common theme in each of those points.

According to Stanford Professor Emerita Nel Noddings, if you foster a culture of empathy in your classroom, the learning, test scores, and academic success goes up with it: “common sense tells us that care and trust would reduce failure rates. …Kids do better in a culture of caring.” Noddings has done studies on the relationship between empathy and academic achievement, and has come to the conclusion that success requires empathy.

It’s true that if a student feels unsafe, unwelcome, or uncared for, their focus will not be on content. More importantly, students who aren’t taught to care, students who aren’t treated with love, will grow up as adults who don’t treat others with love.

And really, what matters if not treating others with love?

What I’ve learned from the confirmation of Mrs. DeVos and the divisiveness that comes with it is that I can’t give up on loving my students. No matter what happens to the structure of public education in our country, my job is to teach students to care for each other, whether they’re male or female, black or white, gay or straight; whether they live in wealth or poverty, uptown or downtown.

My job is to teach with love and teach love.

And I will always prioritize that.

Thanks to Ruth Wilson for an incredible piece, "Empathy for the A" in Teaching Tolerance Spring 2016