Our sixth grade team typically meets at the end of the hallway after our second hour and after school to decompress, regroup, or just say “WTH” to each other.
Today, it was the lack of empathy. We have students who just simply don’t care. What’s worse, they lack that ability to step into another person’s shoes, feeling what they feel, experiencing what they experience. They simply don’t care, and don’t see their lack of caring has a problem. In fact, they seem to revival in it.
So, what do you do? Seriously. We are a Leader in Me school, a character education program, but I don’t see the empathy growing from our teaching. It’s angers me to see the lack of empathy on a daily basis. We continue to hammer away, asking students, “How would that feel,” but knowing, tomorrow, we have students who will say things to their classmates that are “verbal sewage” (thanks Dad!!😂).
There is hope. For professional development, my wife read the book titled, The UnSelfie – Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World, by Michele Borba. The book is divided into three sections: Developing Empathy, Practicing Empathy, and Living Empathy. Inside those sections are the “9 essential habits that provide the ‘Empathy Advantage’ “. I’m looking forward to reading this book, because it’s what we need, right now, students who have empathy, who care. Heck, we need parents who have empathy as well.
Anyway, we have a day left in the Slice of Life Challenge, so tomorrow will be a month in review. This seems like kind of a downer, but as educators, parents, members of society, it’s our duty to demonstrate that empathy for others, to be role models for those who have none. To be the upstanders in a society hell bent finding the next viral video or dance. If not for our sake, then for our children, students, and those who simply don’t see what the right thing looks like.
If not us, than who?
The Life of a Conflicted Teacher 
March 30, 2021 at 10:46 pm
The book sounds interesting. I wonder what students would say if asked to explain the difference between a selfie and an unselfie. I wrote my MA thesis on the empathetic imagination, so this subject is dear to my heart. I’ve always thought literature does more to teach empathy than anything else, and I wonder if the students lack empathy because they’ve not experienced it themselves.
March 31, 2021 at 8:00 am
I agree 100% about literature’s role in teaching and developing empathy. I also think that your point about students lacking empathy because they don’t experience is a powerful idea.
March 31, 2021 at 9:39 pm
> I wonder if the students lack empathy because they’ve not experienced it themselves.<
For many of them, I'm guessing this is exactly what the issue is. The home life is one that screams "empathy". Would you have ideas for middle school literature that you'd use for to help display empathy (before I go down that rabbit hole myself!)?
March 30, 2021 at 11:24 pm
Yes, the book does sound interesting…but the idea of cultivating empathy for the advantage gives me pause. I wonder if the lack of empathy could be numbness or to mask feeling overwhelmed. Although you might be reluctant to consider them nihilists in training, there is a historical correlation with times of uncertaintly and disontent. Recently, I’ve come across current references in the corona crisis context.
https://032c.com/nolen-gertz-on-corona-crisis-nihilism
March 31, 2021 at 7:58 am
I definitely want to check out the book that you mentioned and I love the phrase “verbal sewage.”
I think that taking the time to reflect like you did in this post is important. Thank you for encouraging us all to think about this and how we can support our students on this journey.