...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

...Understanding Civil Rights

It's been a while. Years. Since I've sat down to write about what state my classroom was in; I've reflected, of course, but not sat down to write.

Since the last time I sat down to write and reflect, I'm at a new school. The last three years I've had to completely relearn a new community and assimilate to a new culture that is very different than where I came from.*

At my first school, it would have been unheard of for a student to have a cell phone wallpaper that said "Make America White Again..." but at my new school, that's exactly what happened. Similar things happen often.

Don't get me wrong; my new school is racially and culturally diverse. 51% of the students are military transplants who come from all over the country and all over the world. We are not at all lacking diversity. But this culture is new to me. Students have much different political views than what I'm used to, and in turn, their sensitivities and tolerances tend to be a bit less sensitive and less tolerant than my past experiences.

I know none of my students are purposely racist or offensive. I'm sure none of my students' families are, either. I like to think that none of my families or students have hate in their hearts. But over the last two years (yes, more prevalent since Donald Trump started running for the highest office in our country), I've heard things uttered and seen things written that are shocking and terrifying. "Make America White Again" is one of those sentiments. Others include "Build a wall." "White Pride."  "Keep them out."

In response to these comments, and in a desperate attempt to address the happenings of our country in a way that is both sensitive to the parents of my students and still articulates why what's happening is NOT OK, I decided to utilize some "curriculum time" to discuss the Civil Rights Movement with my classes.

In the Spring of 1963, students in schools all over Birmingham, Alabama walked out of their classrooms and converged on 16th street in an act of defiance against racism and injustice. Though they didn't immediately change the mind of those that segregated them, they were able to get the attention of the rest of the nation, including President Kennedy. They were a catalyst for policy changes that attempted to end segregation and get us to a point where we actually treat all men, women, and otherwise as equals.

photo credit:

http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/09/uab_to_host_photographer_bob_a.html

I was proud, to say the least, at the immediate responses and feedback from my students.

"Dude, that's like Donald Trump."

"That looks like the Women's March. I went to that."

"That's messed up. We can't let that happen again."

No, you sweet thirteen year old, we can't let it happen again.

I am so glad that we took the time to compare the sixties to today. I didn't need to tell these kids that what's happening now is reminiscent of the Civil Rights Movement. They made the connection all on their own.

Don't stop talking. Don't stop remembering.

Dear world, despite what's going on, there is hope. My seventh graders proved it to me this week. The loudest voices are scary. Terrifying. But when we come together, whether it's a children's march during a movement, a Women's March at the capitol, a sit-in at the airport, or another show of solidarity, there is hope.

There is hope.

You can find the Children's March documentary, as well as some other fantastic teaching resources, on www.tolerance.org. Mighty Times: Children's March http://www.tolerance.org/kit/mighty-times-childrens-march