Empathy

I am reminded of the wonderful Cherokee quote: "Grant that I may never find fault with my neighbor until I have walked the trail of life in his moccasins." As adults we all like to think we are empathetic, we can place ourselves in the shoes of others. I have learned from life's experiences that the best empathy develops when you have experienced walking in similar shoes. However, it is not always possible to have experienced the same challenges a friend might have, and at best we need to be able to be empathetic without judgement! 


This is where children have it over us- they are often able to see aspects of the world through the eyes of other children, and the lenses they use are often  more open and  less affected by judgement. They accept on face value what they see. We can learn great lessons from how they deal with the world. 


I see wonderful examples of empathy here at Kio Kio School, sometimes at the most unlikely times. Students who quite intuitively and without judgement are fully inclusive of all students in play activities. Students who fundraised for a 'fun event' and gave away their fundraising for moral purpose, to help someone who was in need. Students who seem to have eyes everywhere and spot those in need of a friendly smile or a helping hand. 


Empathy requires respect, and empathy builds citizenship.  This is about Whakatangata, playing the game of life. 

Kio Kio School- Whakatangata Playing the game of life

Our school motto is Whakatangata, Playing the game of life. 

For the learning community that is Kio Kio school, we believe this refers to and encompasses our school values, our 'can do' and 'give it a go' attitude to our learning and to risk taking and problem solving. 

We want confident, connected, and actively engaged learners who are committed to their own learning and encouraging of all other learners. We want learners to thrive in a collaborative environment where there is tolerance of diversity, and where innovation and initiative are encouraged and valued. 

I recently attended a conference, Learning@Schools. There were some gems from the conference that stick in my mind.  Among the gems.... "We need to celebrate failure" (Christian Long). Another is "Learn2love2learn" (Kevin Honeycutt). 

How apt- how true, and how relevant to our motto! Life is all about failures- we learn the hard lessons from our failures, failures represent risks taken. From our failures we learn to be resilient, we learn to problem solve, we learn to ask others for help, we learn to cherish and value our successes along the way. Failure is a challenge to succeed! 

Tomorrow's students will need to be 'more and more comfortable with failure' (Christian Long Twitter: @christianlong). "We need students who are better and better at fail(ing) better" (Samuel Beckett, quoted by Christian Long). So, how often do we celebrate failure..... and how can we make celebrating failures part of the way we do things here at Kio Kio? That will be an interesting challenge!

Kevin Honeycutt suggests that we need to question everything. Young children do  this intuitively, research I read recently points out that most 4 year olds ask an average of 470 questions a day  - do we encourage this to continue through school? How can we capitalise on this curiosity, this thirst for understanding the world around them?  As learners we all need 2learn2love2learn! We need to reignite our own passion for asking questions!