I read the article “Creating A Culture of Peace in the Elementary Classroom” by Tiffany J. Hunter, a selection I made because I believe that a classroom that is filled with stress, discomfort or conflict is not an effective one for learning. I was especially interested in the portion of this article entitled “Empathy Training.”
These paragraphs describe ways of teaching students to understand feelings of themselves, others, and even fictional characters. I enjoyed reading about this immensely, as it never occurred to me that you could teach others how to empathize. Until reading this, I was under the impression that sympathy, empathy, and general understanding, are innate qualities and abilities.
A portion of the article says that learning about emotions and feelings isn’t enough, it is important also to capitalize on and teach the “capacity to recognize feelings and understand them as contextualized responses.” I love the idea not only of teaching students about feelings, but the effects they have on our actions, responses, and interactions with one another. I believe that this kind of “empathy training” would help a classroom to run in a more peaceful, resolved way.
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