Empathy has gone AWOL!

In this week's Elmore Thursday Thoughts, we are looking at an article that moves students from Apathy to Empathy.  Tim started the article talking about his sightings on a college campus.  He states that while observing students he saw them engaged, but not the way we would like.  The students were more emotional than logical, more talking than listening, trying to catch the other person saying something incorrectly than finding a place of compromise.  Sadly, neither student, in this case, wanted to improve themselves, they just wanted to prove themselves were right.

http://growingleaders.com/blog/four-essentials-move-students-apathy-empathy/ 

Thanks to Google, let's first define each keyword:

Apathy: lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern

Empathy: the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Tim then shocked me by giving the statistic that over the last 15 years there's been a drop of 40 percent in empathy among U.S. college students. In today's technological world we see this as cyber-bullying, emotional arguments, and social media feuds.  Mr. Elmore states that part of maturation (promoting to each grade) is understanding and caring for the world beyond our own.  That is why at CTK we make it a priority to serve others.

Tim then gives us four ingredients that move students from apathy to empathy.  His first  ingredient is entitled: Margin.  This is related to the other article where we need to focus on fewer activities rather than more.  Tim is quoted at saying, "if our schedules are absolutely jammed, our brains are fully stimulated."  He later gives a suggestion to plan "boredom time" into your day.

Please continue to read the article for three more ingredients that move students from apathy to empathy.  Please comment on ideas on how we can help our students too.


Don't forget to join me the First Thursday of each Month from 8:30 to 9:30am in the West Gallery for up-to-date information on where CTK is at in regrades to selling Trenton road and what the future holds.