Day 11 Michael Land- Empathy

**Written and submitted by Michael**

Tonight I had my first ever parent teacher meeting. It was a little unusual. We had deer chops at home with Lily’s fifth grade teacher. There was a technical glitch in the first scheduled meeting so he came to the house.

There were nine of us, since he brought his son, and one of Rosy’s friends was over for dinner while her mom went to a board meeting for the Woman’s Centre. After we ate the kids were asked to leave and Bernice, Chris, and I heard a reflection from Lily’s teacher about her academic, artistic, and social progress at school.

This is a Waldorf school and their approach seems a little more well rounded then most public schools. The extent of genuine care I saw impressed me. The kids have had some big events in their lives, Chris’s accident, me moving in, and now being sick for so long, and all these have impact on how they relate to friends and peers at school. The more awareness everyone has the more supportive we can be.

At one point in the conversation he spoke about now being an important time for Lily to be practicing empathy, and ways that she can do that through stories and helping people.

Wow, isn’t that cool. A teacher that talks about kids learning empathy.

I’d like to see it on the curriculum everywhere. That’s the kind of stuff I think we need to be teaching our children.



"Where did you learn empathy?" is the question for 12 days journal #297