Third Grade

During the first six weeks of school in guidance class we are focusing on learning about empathy.  The ability to feel empathy -- understanding and responding to another's feelings -- helps us to be a good friend, someone others enjoy being around.  It also helps us put ourselves in another's place to understand why he/she might feel differently about a situation than we do.

The goals of the six-week unit are to:

help students to identify emotions -- their own and others, be a good listener, really tuning in, be able to see a situation from another's point of view -- put oneself in that person's shoes, and show that we care about another's feelings.

When students can do this they have better peer relationships, are more likely to talk out problems (rather than jump to conclusions about who is right or wrong), and have fewer conflicts that can't be resolved peacefully.  Empathy is the primary quality of emotional intelligence (see Daniel Goleman's book by that name).

Parents encourage empathy when they ask questions like: how do you think Joey felt when you did that? How did you feel when that happened? What might make him feel better? Naming feelings and being able to articulate them helps us to deal more positively with them and be more empathic of others.

Please Email Madelyn Nash if you have questions or comments about this page.

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Last updated November 08, 2007