Activating Empathy: Transforming Schools to Teach What Matters

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One of the things that I learned teaching "Theories of Social Order" to students who, in all likelibood, would be involved in practical affairs (like becoming a cop), teaching Introductory Sociology to community college students at a number of schools in the metropolitan area is that all that was needed (by teacher and students alike) was a willingness to learn (to figure out how to make the readings relevant when possible), to learn from mistakes and to work hard. I found the same energy at a new york public school where I taught for a short period of time. But I also found teachers in both environments expecting alot less from minority students (in the belief that they were not equipped or capable of doing serious work). If you look at and compare introductory texts at public colleges vs. private schools, you see the same attitude operating. I decided to try the approach of expecting alot from public school kids (establishing high standards, not using sub-standard texts i.e., requiring serious reading at the college level) and it worked. The problem at the public school was the administration whose view of students was quite different from mine. At the public school, students wishing to sort out Math a bit more, met with me at lunch. We called ourselves the "lunch bunch" and there we discussed math and whatever else students needed to discuss to acquire an understanding of the math we were working on. This was their time to ask questions and discuss their problems with the subject. Seems to me such a program might be introduced at the public schools. Teachers meeting with students on their own time (lunch, before school starts, after school) whenever it is convenient for teachers and students to discuss the subject and students concerns, questions and needs. I do have reason to think that in order to create empathy, one needs to have empathy shown to you. It goes both ways. That requires an environment that supports the notion of mutual respect. When a student came to me and said that she felt threatened by some boys, I took her concern seriously. The school did not. She eventually left the school. This is not to say that some kids are ill-prepared or unwilling. But then they should be dealt with on their terms. The first time that I taught college 34 years ago, I had the school janitor in my class. He had difficulty reading the material. I encouraged him to seek help and also gave him a different kind of test. He learned something (as did I0 and passed with a C (despite his reading problem). Perhaps, he should have been assessed and given alot of remedial help to sort out his needs before even attending college. As I see it, teachers have similar needs, so perhaps the thinking of the lunch bunch could be introduced at schools (as between teachers and administrators) so as to help both sort out the best way of solving learning/teaching problems. Specifically, I would be looking for (perhaps a charter school in NY) to try the approach out and to assess its value to teachers and students during and after a year.