Greetings on Teachers’ Day
What is Empathy?
Empathy means the ability to understand and share feelings of others. Empathy relates to connecting with people, building relationship with them, listening and caring about them. It will make it possible for us to learn as how to act and react in diverse situations responsibly and compassionately towards others. Empathy empowers us to reach out and connect with other people.
Empathy in the Classroom
Empathy is an integral part of education. Academic development in the school amounts to emotional and motivational development. Students learning in the school are deeply affected by the emotions and motivation, he is coming with. Teachers must be able to understand and connect with the students so as to serve them best in their learning. Teachers face students in the class from different backgrounds with different emotions.
Teachers must have empathy for their students to teach them best and must develop this skill in them also. This will enable students to understand and care others which will enhance the academic environment in the school. In a smooth running classroom with empathy skills, the teachers should set necessary rules and directives as how the students are to interact with their peers in the class, as they know that the students learn best when they are with their peers having positive relationship with them.
Empathy Skills
Developing positive relationships requires empathy skills like
(a) listening to others,
(b) understanding verbal and nonverbal cues, and learning to understand, and
(c) Appreciate the differences in others.
Students come to the classroom with their backgrounds; they do not leave their problems and feelings at home, and when classmates do not have the skills to understand and work with their diverse classmates problems can arise. It is the teacher’s job to teach tolerance and empathy to students because it cannot be assumed that these skills are being addressed in the home. Teachers must take this into account as they work together with their students to build knowledge. As classrooms become more and more diverse students can no longer expect to meet peers who eat the same food, practice the same religion, or hold the same beliefs as they do. Students want and deserve more from their education, a deeper understanding and a richer enjoyment of life, and the ability to connect and build meaningful relationships with others.
drprabhatbhatnagar 