Empathy as a Teacher

 Empathy for Teachers

As a future teacher, you HAVE to have empathy. Especially in public schools, you will have children in your class from all different places, some that you might not be familiar with. You may come across situations that you haven't dealt with or experienced with children. You have to challenge your close-minded brain and open it to everyone. Be accepting, open-minded, and ultimately... empathetic. 

Being an Empath 

In the book "This Book Will Make you Kinder" by Henry James Garret, he states that "White people, for example, tend to be ignorant of the racial context in which our actions take place" (Garret 113). As a leader of your classroom, you have to understand what a certain action what may mean to someone else, even if it doesn't affect or seem harmful to you. I am not a perfect empath, but I am trying. In order to become a teacher, I know that I have to work on understanding others' feelings and why or how they are being affected. I know that I have to be respectful of everyone's feelings, beliefs, thoughts, and traditions in my classroom. 

"...an empathy-limiting mistake is any mental state that would change in light of new, more accurate information, and would change in such a way that you would find yourself with a greater empathetic motivation to pursue a particular course of action." -Henry James Garrett

 

Trust, Communication, and Empathy

Im sure you've heard this a million times, but communication is key, especially for teachers. Communication builds relationships, which is crucial when dealing with young kids, but you also need empathy when creating those relationships. Trust needs to be strengthened between the teacher and student; one good way to build that trust is by validating their feelings. Saying phrases like "Thank you for sharing that with me" or "I understand how the situation made you feel like that" are great ways to be empathetic and a trustworthy adult to a student. 

quotes from: The Empathetic Teacher by Sari Goldberg McKeown (link)