The Need of Empathy in the Classroom

• What is Empathy?

Let us begin by defining the term “empathy”. In very simple terms, empathy refers to placing in someone else´s place in order to understand how this person feels. It refers to the ability to position you in your peer´s situation and from that point, offer comfort and help.

• Importance of Empathy

I have seen a little too many how deteriorated relationships between students and teachers largely affect the teaching-learning process.

This discrepancy usually is a result of the lack of understanding of the teacher towards the student. Needless to say, this brings about a failure in the whole process. As teachers, we are not called to simply teach minds. We are meant to form kids and to connect with them in such a way that what they are told by their teachers actually resonates with them. One way of achieving this is by showing your students empathy.

• What should be done?

Regardless of our personality, we could all display some empathy towards another. This means that you laugh with those who laugh and cry with those who cry. You are a stronghold which kids are able to grasp to whenever they feel the need to be heard and understood.

But empathy should not be a one lane road. This must also come from students towards themselves and towards the teacher. So it is all about creating a favorable ambiance in the classroom. This favors a tolerant and more accepting school community.

• Tips to practice

The following are some tips you might want to put into practice in order to develop empathy in your students:

• Develop activities in which students show empathy for one another. How about having them give a smile to at least three of their classmates?
• Teach kids to communicate between each other in such a way that when one of them is feeling down, the others know how to proceed.
• Encourage students to approach you to talk about how they are feeling. They need to know that you are an entity that they can go to in times of sorrow.
• Modeling is important, so whenever you have the chance to cheer up a student, or place yourself on the shoes of someone, do it in such a way that your students will be encouraged to follow your footsteps.
• Have kids try to realize how they would feel if they were in a difficult situation themselves. Experts recommend an exercise in which kids actually make facial expressions to simulate such feelings.

An atmosphere of empathy in the classroom is one that will enable kids to feel understood and protected. It is an ambiance of accepting one another and caring for one another.