In this cute—but all too relevant—clip about empathy versus sympathy, it becomes easy to see why empathy triumphs as the go-to mode for handling an anxious or struggling individual. Perhaps these struggling individuals are our students. Actually…we know they are. Now more than ever, the pandemic has pushed people into an empathetic mindset. From my perspective as a graduate student, I have a feeling this is because students are no longer afraid their teachers will not “understand” their situation. Students feel more willing to open up about their problems, pandemic or otherwise, because they know their concerns will be heard with by an empathetic heart.
However, what happens now that the pandemic is (seemingly) starting to end its chapter? In my previous article, Preparing Past the Pandemic, I talked briefly about this issue and some ways to incorporate kindness and care into your teaching lifestyle. I wrote this little blurb in September 2020. Since then, I have been able to teach, tutor, and observe students firsthand as they conquered through the zoom classroom. After this, I feel one of the most useful things I can offer is a recap. The lessons I’ve learned and the observations I have noticed from all my students. While I felt my previous piece on Preparing Past the Pandemic felt useful in terms of the research I had dived into, it lacked real-time experience. This is a reflection and a revision of that piece.
Well-Being Assignments
My first recommendation in Preparing Past the Pandemic was to put well-being in your syllabus. This could be anything. From making students write a “happy list” to getting them to keep gratitude journals. For my class, I made weekly gratitude journals a central component of the class. Every week students were required to write about three things that made them grateful. I was so pleased to see the kinds of things students expressed gratitude for. From a home-cooked meal to a friend helping them with their science homework, they made me remember moments of gratitude I should also be having and this experience humbled me. This particular experience made me understand a little more about simplicity in assignments. While this particular assignment was nothing life-altering, it offered a space for my students. With the physical classroom being closed to them, I felt students truly leaned on this writing space as a creative area for them to think more deeply about things that mattered to them.
Resources
Give mental health resources and allow students to open up. Both of these things were pertinent for me as a teacher this year. Teaching a completely asynchronous class with only the “option” to meet for zoom conferences meant it was completely possible to never truly “see” my students for an entire quarter. This devastated me. As someone who reads nonphysical cues in the classroom quite often—looking upset, not participating, or not showing up completely—I worried about how I could determine my students’ mental health if I could not physically see them. As the school year zoomed forward (pun intended), I realized this idea of “not showing up” still came into play online. If a student was not completing any homework that week, I reached out. If a student was doing great on their work previously and then suddenly started turning in less than average work, I reached out. If a student mentioned something concerning in their discussion comments, I reached out. Being attentive as a teacher, especially in the online realm, means going out of the way to reach your students. Even if it’s nothing, they will appreciate the care you put into them.
Moving Forward
Social psychologist Brené Brown reminds us that “Empathy drives connection…and sympathy drives disconnection.” For our students, it seems especially important that we carefully evaluate our position as teachers—and people—for the up and coming school year. In the 2020-2021 school year I watched as my students struggled to face the pandemic alongside family illnesses, personal mental health struggles, and time management failure. Many of these things will not go away with the pandemic. They will stay, and so should our “tolerance” to them in the classroom. Leading with empathy may have been what the pandemic taught us, but it is our job as instructors to continue to carry this lesson through.