Requiring Empathy Training (July Post)

I've recently done many empathy training programs. Like, five. That's a lot to do in half of a year.

Every program seemed to be the same: leave space for sharing, ask clarifying yet respectful questions, support your peer through their challenge. To the student, these seem obvious. Of course, no one is going to be disrespectful when someone is sharing their feelings. 

To me, this all seemed trivial. I was actually rather annoyed that I wasn't able to carry my empathy training "credit" over into the different programs. I mean, they took a long time, and the teachers rarely offered new insight. Even when the agenda changed, the end goal was still the same: prepare students to practice empathy in specific instances.

It wasn't until recently that I saw how important this training is. 

After the training, I would usually be sent to facilitate something. These programs were often within my own community: school, extracurricular or educational groups, athletics. Those who participated had similar stories to my own. 

As I learned in the training, empathy is the hardest to employ when experiences are different.

I recently concluded my Yale Young Global Scholars program, which hosted students from 190 countries. We all had vastly different experiences. No better place to practice empathy!!

In contrast to my prior experiences after training, my empathy education was invaluable in the YYGS setting. 

What seemed like a burden so many times before was suddenly vital.

We don't often realize what will be important or helpful until it's employed in the right setting. This is why Poly, or any school really, should push to require empathy training so when students are put in situations with varying perspectives, they are equipped to handle them with respect.