Who Cares?

http://wane.com/news/crime/police-young-boys-burglarized-house/


Today a news story emerged from my community:  

STEUBEN COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) -  Police apprehended three boys, ages 10, 12 and 13, after they allegedly broke into a home and ransacked it Saturday.

According to the Steuben County Sheriff’s Department, the homeowner called police around 4:30 p.m. after coming home and seeing that his house had been ransacked and burglarized...

Police said the three boys were identified and apprehended following an investigation.

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My heart is breaking... as a teacher in our small community, I venture to say that I probably know these boys.  They are already human to me--not just one of 'them.'

What are the underlying causes of these children's actions?  Do they feel so disconnected already?  How do we change their path?  

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Also, today, I read an editorial in the New York Times by one of my writing heroes, Walter Dean Myers, in response to this statistic and its implications:

Of 3,200 children’s books published in 2013, just 93 were about black people, according to a study by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin.

I actually cringed to read Myers' description of how literacy impacted his youth--and how a lack of writing that he felt represented his life, his race, his culture, contributed to a darkness in life that resulted in his loss of himself that went on for years.   Myers' says:

"In the middle of the night I ask myself if anyone really cares.

When I was doing research for my book, Monster, I approached a white lawyer doing pro bono work in the courts defending poor clients. I said that it must be difficult to get witnesses to court to testify on behalf of an inner-city client, and he replied that getting witnesses was not as difficult as it sometimes appeared on television. “The trouble,” he said, “is to humanize my clients in the eyes of a jury. To make them think of this defendant as a human being and not just one of ‘them.’ ”

I realized that this was exactly what I wanted to do when I wrote about poor inner-city children — to make them human in the eyes of readers and, especially, in their own eyes. I need to make them feel as if they are part of America’s dream, that all the rhetoric is meant for them, and that they are wanted in this country."

According to Ruby Payne and other researchers such as the World Literacy Foundation (2012):

"Improving literacy skills is a key first step to overcoming the obstacles that lock individuals into a cycle of poverty and disadvantage."

Without overlooking the complexities of parenting, especially in 2014, I would like to explore the idea of building empathy and compassion via literacy.  I recently ordered two books from Stenhouse Publishers:

Caring Hearts & Critical Minds:  Literature, Inquiry, and Social Responsibility by Steven Wolk

and

Many Texts, Many Voices:  Teaching Literacy and Social Justice to Young Learners in the Digital Age by Penny Silvers and Mary C. Shorey

as well as two from Heinemann Publishers:

Bullying Hurts:  Teaching Kindness Through Read-Alouds and Guided Conversations by Lester Laminack and Reba Wadsworth

For a Better World:  Reading and Writing for Social Action by Randy and Katherine Bomer


These resources are helping me to consider how I, as a teacher and literacy coach, can assist teachers in considering ways to build empathy/compassion into students' reading and writing processes.  I genuinely believe that this could make a critical difference in students' decisions while they are still children, building their identities as future adults.

The Dalai Lama has even been quoted when discussing compassion and empathy saying,
”If every 8 year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.” 

In this day in age in American schools, I don't know if we can work on meditation per se: but...

We CAN and DO work on teaching students to focus, to read and write, and to problem-solve.  We want them to "be present" and engaged in learning.

So how might we capitalize on this, building the best society we can, bridging students out of the cycle of poverty (economically and emotionally)?

In  Caring Hearts & Critical Minds:  Literature, Inquiry, and Social Responsibility, 5th-9th grade students explore the importance of reading and learning through inquiry.  Units described are all geared toward teaching for social responsibility.  Students explore questions, such as:

• Does Technology Always Make Life Better?
• What is Empathy?
• Why Should I Care About What is Happening Around the World?
• Why Care About Poverty?

And, yes, in case you are wondering, Steven Wolk even addresses "Reading for the Heart and Mind (in the Age of Testing and Standards).

The Bomers' work in For a Better World:  Reading and Writing for Social Action is similar as students in grades 4-8 learn via classroom conversations about social issues in literature and learn to use their personal writing projects to respond and/or for social justice.  I have personally found my writing voice and inspiration via Katherine's work in her books (Writing a Life and Hidden Gems) on the writing workshop.  You can feel her honor for her students, helping them to feel empowered and visible.  

In Many Texts, Many Voices:  Teaching Literacy and Social Justice to Young Learners in the Digital Age, Silver and Shorey also examine ways to build social responsibility, empathy, and compassion for students in grades K-3.  This mindful text helps students learn to consider whose voices are being heard, and the importance of taking social action.

Lester Laminack and Reba Wadsworth take a somewhat different approach in their book and is, perhaps, the most accessible to everyone since it uses the read-aloud as the impetus for important, essential social conversations.  In Bullying Hurts:  Teaching Kindness Through Read-Alouds and Guided Conversations, Laminack and Wadsworth open with considering how it feels to be bullied, types of bullying, and exploring why bullying happens in the first place.  (Just reading their introduction will tug at your heartstrings.)  From there, the authors explore layered ways of building empathy, compassion, and civility in our students.  Discussions are scripted, touchstone texts and lessons described, and bibliographical suggestions are made for further reading and support.

So, right now I'm thinking how we need to consider ways of teaching that will support and build students who practice kindness and decency to one another and their/our communities.

We could build project or inquiry-based units to support literacy (and possibly other content areas) that include vibrant resources from the real world, intentionally teaching to build social responsibility.

Who's in?  

Email me or comment on this post!  

Seriously, I am open to ideas, hearing about your work in this area, and assisting teachers with designing and implementing units like these!