The importance of teaching empathy through Literature
Diane Lee, English Teacher at Stowmarket High School , shares powerful first-hand examples of the importance of teaching empathy and the impact this can make.
A School, A Shoe and A Stone
Memories, like confetti in the wind, dance around my mind as I recollect some amazing moments had in my classroom and beyond since teaching a more diverse curriculum. Recollections such as a tear-inducing lemon sherbet or seeing the actual writer of your set GCSE text dialoguing with your students or hearing experiences so powerful from a visiting speaker that they are now imprinted onto your mind, or rich discussions which leave impressions in not only your head, but also your heart. These reminisces and so many more effervescently fizz around my brain.
Since 2021, after successfully being accepted to become a Literature in Colour Pioneer School by Pearson Edexcel, I can honestly say that the experiences I’ve had in the past two years almost eclipse those gained over the past two decades.
Creating Compassion
A now standout memory is when while teaching the play adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses to my year 8 class, tears fell from my eyes. What caused tears to run down my cheeks and a precious moment to run into my heart? A lemon sherbet.
To prepare them for a writing task, I had instructed my students to write either ‘blue’ or ‘purple’ in their books and after they had done so, I went around the class with a bag of lemon sherbets giving only to those students who had written ‘purple’ in their books. It did not take long before the murmurs of discontent to rise into the air. Snatches of “That’s not fair!” arrived at my ears but found no welcome mat as I kept my face poker-straight and continued handing out the sweets.
After a short while, I finished and announced to the whole class in my most saccharine voice, “Enjoy your sweets.” At this point, one of my students got up and stated emphatically, “That’s not fair!” walked to my desk and put his lemon sherbet back on my desk. Realising that not everyone in the class had been given a sweet, he decided to return his sweet and had the courage to act on his convictions. In that moment, with his mind made up, he concluded that if not all the students had a sweet, then he would not have one either. Realising what he had done and importantly, why he had returned the sweet, caused tears to well up and fall. Compassion for those who he had perceived to have been treated unfairly moved his heart, and feet to act. How powerful!
Bringing characters to life
In May 2022, I accompanied a cohort of Year 10 students with two other colleagues, on an evening theatre trip to see the poet and writer, Lemn Sissay. When do most students, studying a text at GCSE get to see and speak to the writer in real time? Graciously, Lemn Sissay (who wrote the play adaptation of Refugee Boy) made time for our students that evening and enriched an already amazing evening. Not only were those students enriched through cultural capital as most had never attended a theatre before, but also by seeing the writer of the text that they were currently studying made the text more meaningful to them and brought it alive even more.
Serendipitously, that same evening, I bumped into a colleague which, in short, opened up another opportunity for the students. This time for a speaker to come into school. Speaking, poignantly and powerfully about her work as a social worker, working with unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK, the speaker painted a vivid picture in the minds of our students as she realistically recounted anecdotes, statistics, and emotive experiences about what it is genuinely like to be a young person fleeing your homeland. She really exemplified the opening line from Warsan Shire’ s poem ‘Home” when she stated, ‘No one leaves home, unless home is the mouth of a shark.’
Jewelled moments like sitting in my classroom with students from all year groups munching muffins and discussing the books that were being read in my lunchtime Lit in Colour book club. Books, that had been generously donated to the school by Penguin Books UK as part of this initiative and now borrowed from the mini library which is comprised of writers of colour. Views shared, points of perspectives listened to, characters analysed, plot lines picked apart, topical and current affairs dissected, and critical thinking skills developed. Golden opportunities given, created, and graciously received as each attendee has and is given the opportunity to step into a person of colour’s world, their mind, their shoes.
Building empathy
At the risk of sounding like a typical teacher, I’m going to say that if you have been paying attention, you will have noticed that I have spoken about a school, just latterly, about stepping into someone’s shoes, but where does a stone fit into all of this?
What do these three things have in common? No, this is not some sort of riddle, and unlike usual labyrinth-like puzzles where you must sweat hard to solve them yourself, I’m here to give you a cheat sheet and let you in on the answer.
To arrive at the answer, understanding what empathy is, is the route map. Heard often, but what is empathy?
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary website, it is: ‘the feeling that you understand and share another person's experiences and emotions.’ Often, informally, known as the ability to walk in someone else’s shoes; let me ask you, do you want to be able to cultivate that skill (in yourself as well as your young people), which is in increasingly high demand and value, or do you (unintentionally) want to be a stone in someone else’s shoe?
Let me share a recent story to illustrate.
Returning home from walking my dog one day after work, a stone became lodged in my ankle boot. Initially, I tried to ignore it, but soon it became increasingly uncomfortable and eventually, as it moved from my heel to my sole: walking became unbearable. Thus, I paused, leant against a wall, removed my boot, shook out the offending stone wandering at the same time how something so small could become such a large irritation and have such a profound negative effect?
This innocuous event made me consider that when you walk with a stone in your shoe, you cannot walk far, comfortably, or easily. No. It makes you stop. You are forced to address the object which has now made you subject to pain, discomfort, and suffering. I realised that this could be metaphorically translated into what we do when we do not or cannot show empathy to someone else. We cannot walk in another person’s shoes – understanding life from their perspective – therefore, we become, even if we do not want to, a stone. Uncomfortable to be around, utter points of view which hurt, wound, and cause pain to others. Also, suffering to someone’s soul.
This can be avoided, however.
"How?” you ask
By adopting holistic practices into your teaching: resources, materials, and strategies. In short, teaching a more diverse curriculum.
There is a slew of recent research on the importance of empathy in the workplace and chiefly as an emerging and developed skill within managers. In a February 2022 article, posted on the London School of Economics LSE website, ‘Allyson Zimmermann writes that empathy is a hard business skill that affects an organisation’s bottom line by increasing productivity, creativity and employee engagement.’ Further, she evidenced that ‘Many believe empathy is an innate trait, rather than a skill, and that it cannot be learned. However, a large body of research shows that it is a skill that can be learned and developed.’ Consequently, Zimmerman found that, ‘Those with empathic managers report higher levels of creativity (61%) and engagement (76%) than those with less empathic senior leaders (13% and 32% respectively). Senior leader empathy is also linked to lower staff turnover and reduced intent to leave for women of colour.’ (“Empathy is a business skill | LSE Business Review”)
Representation is key
Everyone wants to be understood, feel like they matter, desire to be heard. Everyone wants to see themselves when they look in a mirror and so it is when you read, you want to see characters that resemble you and that resonate with you among the pages. We tend to think, if it is in print, then it must be true. Sadly, the reverse is also thought and spoken, “If I do not see myself then I must be of little to no value, no worth and therefore, I do not exist.” Prolific writers such as Malorie Blackman and Patrice Lawrence have each echoed sentiment like this. Representation matters.
At my current school (medium-sized with a predominantly white student population in Suffolk), we have sought and are seeking to prepare our young people to take their place in society, as well-rounded individuals. As empathetic as well as academically minded young people. As a Teacher of English, within a department led by past and present visionary leaders, we are so glad that we took a leap of faith and chose to become a Literature in Colour Pioneer School. Thank you, Pearson Edexcel, thank you, Penguin Books UK, thank you, The Runnymede Trust: hopefully, our students will become people who can empathise and not traumatise. Our hope, desire and aim are that they will be able to walk in someone else’s shoes and not be a stone.
References:
- https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/empathy
- https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2022/02/07/empathy-is-a-business-skill/
- Warsan Shire Conversations of Home 2009