Items tagged "Empathy"

Why should you take a class on empathy? And why is theatre the perfect vehicle for empathy?

Empathy, the more sought-after and inclusive cousin of sympathy, is the experiencing of someone else’s experience in the world. What it would be like if you were wearing their clothes, their life?

Teaching students to understand the clothes that they’re putting on, the characters and their lives teaches students not how to act but how to be. It allows the students to feel what someone else feels and experiences, which can and should translate to their fellow actors and peers away from the stage. It will lead to a stronger class connection, stronger performances and stronger students who will seek out understanding instead of isolation and fear.

Brought to you by instructor Steven Stack, creator of The Empathetic Classroom, this course looks at ways to move on from the worldwide pandemic, while honoring the past and learning from it. In the past year, students had many things taken from them: school, hanging out with friends, freedom, hope, and innocence.

With this course, each session will highlight one specific topic relating to moving on. There will also be activities for each session that will help your students own the past, embrace their own and others’ narratives and scars, create a stronger classroom community, find ways to be where their feet are planted, and learn to play again.

An overview of The Empathy Project resource.

The first step on the empathetic journey is with yourself. How can you connect with others if you don’t know who you are? Students will explore activities that allow them to think and reflect inward.

The second step on the empathetic journey is forming a link with others. Students take on activities where they have to work together and connect with others.

The third step on the empathetic journey is forming a link with your character. Students will work to link with characters who are quite different from them.

After forming a link with yourself, each other, and your character, the last two links in the empathetic journey are the audience and the outside world.

Students decide, design, and implement a culminating presentation that uses theatricality to share the concepts of empathy.

A poster for your drama classroom; quote from John Leguizamo.

Steven Stack's Keynote speech "Empathy: It Begins With You", from the DTA Virtual Conference, recorded July 2019.

Join teachers who have used, adapted, and successfully led the Empathy Project with their students, and add this powerful tool to your classroom management toolkit.