April: Diversity/Tolerance

Empathy is a concept that can be developmentally difficult for elementary students to fully understand as their thinking is predominately egocentric.  This is especially true for the primary grade-levels when students are definitively in Piaget's Preoperational stage of development.  While challenging, working on understanding empathy is key to solving many peer conflicts.

When talking with students who are in the midst of an argument or disagreement, I often allow each child to describe the conflict situation from their point of view.  For some students, it is incredibly difficult for them to simply listen, as they consistently want to defend their own perspective.  When students truly listen and understand how each other feels or did feel, it is easier for both sides to move past problems and develop solutions for the future.

Stand in My Shoes: Kids Learning About Empathy by Bob Sornson has been helpful in teaching kids what empathy is and how it is useful.  The story follows a young girl throughout her day, and reviews several scenarios where family members, peers, and her teacher could have benefited from a little empathy.

I have also found that our local Women's Shelter has a wonderful prevention education department and are willing to conduct classroom lessons free of charge.  In year's past the Women's Shelter taught empathy lessons to our 4th and 5th grade students. The presenter brought in a basket of children's shoes with life stories attached.  The stories touched on such topics as separated/divorced families, poverty, and discrimination.  What really moved our students was when the presenters confirmed all the stories attached to the shoes were factual, and from local county children.  Every child and family faces their own struggles and hardships.  It is important for students to stop personalizing problems and recognize that underneath another student's anger, frustration, mean behaviors and tears, could just be a child struggling with uncontrollable life situations.