Students want teachers who are emotionally present, empathetic to their experiences and who invest in their well-being and success. Teachers crave those same things — empathy, support and investment — from families, school and district leaders and the public. In my experience, there’s an empathy gap for teachers. What I didn’t recognize or acknowledge is that this has created an empathy gap for students as well.
That’s a realization I didn’t come to until hearing a student’s perspective on the issue.
Recently, one of our 12th grade students, Yazmin Walters, composed a presentation in the style of a TED Talk as an independent study project. The project was designed to allow our students to share experiences from their academic careers that they believed were a hindrance to their success. Yasmin delivered her speech at one of our school-based professional development sessions.
Using her own experiences as a struggling student in her early high school years, her talk centered on the achievement gap and her belief that educators’ lack of empathy is a major factor in perpetuating it. Yazmin shared her personal experience as a student who frequently struggled, but worked diligently to improve her academic performance. In her talk, she reflected on being placed on the “promotion in doubt” list in second grade. She was told that in order to be promoted to the next grade she needed a 75 percent average by the end of year. She ended the year with a 73 percent average. Yazmin expressed that the number 73 haunts her to this day. To her, the situation represented not only a setback, but a larger indicator of how she was being seen and supported by the people who were responsible for ensuring her success — her teachers. “I am more than a 73,” she said to us all. “The biggest mistake as an educator … is to make a student feel like nothing but a number.”
It was powerful to hear her perspective. Too often, our students’ voices are not considered when it comes to the issues that affect them most. My heart swelled with pride as I watched her command a room full of educators and speak her truth. But as I left our building later that evening, that feeling of pride was overshadowed by overwhelming frustration.
I was angry. I was tired. I was heartbroken.
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