Last week I had told an 8th grade student how I appreciated her showing empathy to me.
She smiled.
But then I asked her, do you know what empathy means?
She said she didn’t think she did. Not sympathy. So I wrote it on a piece of paper for her to look up in a dictionary later on as we were downstairs.
Later she brought me this dictionary. She told me empathy wasn’t in it. What? Let me see that.
I took it from her and looked and stared.
She was absolutely right!
It has emotion, but not empathy.
I think empathy is an important quality to possess and needs to be taught as well.
