The students have become the teacher

What a remarkable day. Thank you for sharing with me, Latin class. I thought I would document a few of the things you shared today about empathy:

• Empathy cannot be taught. But it can be learned.
• Empathy is not imposed. It is uncovered.
• Empathy is impossible without diversity. Diversity and inclusiveness pave the path to empathy.
• Empathy is hard. Empathy demands courage.
• Empathy is also inward. Can we be as understanding and open-minded to ourselves as we aim to be with others?

How enriching! And all of that is just from those of you who decided to share. To those of you who chose not to share: were you quiet because you would have felt uncomfortable voicing a dissenting opinion? If so, I hope I can convince you to take a risk and share your perspective. I promise to keep working to make sure you know that there is room for your voice. (And for the sake of empathy — we can all work to understand the world from your perspective too!) If you aren’t sure if you want to speak up, remember that struggle yields growth. If there were no friction between our ideas, I would worry that we aren’t really even having the same conversation.

Where do we go from here? We are only 1/3 of the way through Latin Lit 1; the arc of our year still has much more in store for us. For example, just reflecting on class today might bring up a few questions:

• What is the difference between empathy, sympathy, and compassion?

• Does empathy apply only to negative experiences? Can it apply to positive experiences as well?

• How does our understanding of ourselves affect our understanding of each other?

• Is it possible to understand empathy in a way that is completely unemotional?

• Can we “uncover” empathy in such a way now that will let us read other authors with empathy? What about when we read Ovid’s Metamorphoses or someday Virgil’s Aeneid? Better yet — can the practice we get from reading these ancient authors help us treat each other with empathy too?