We all have invisible stories inside of us.
In the fall of 2013, during the first two weeks of my school year, I went through a scary week of weird symptoms and ER visits, with a final diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis. Most symptoms of MS are invisible symptoms. They are not something you can see. Most days, I am fine. But some days, I might be struggling to keep my balance or battling some extreme fatigue or dealing with that burning sensation in my left shin. These invisible symptoms and the worry that more might come are things I have to deal with every day.
As a child, I had a stable and loving environment. My family was an upper middle class family. We didn’t get everything we wanted, but we had everything we needed. My mother and father loved each other and they loved us and we knew it. I was a good student and had a lot of advantages that a lot of other kids don’t have. On the surface, I had a very charmed life. However, I was dealing with a lot of angst and worry. You see, my father had a massive heart attack when I was in third grade. His heart attack was so severe that he lost the function in one-third of his heart. He had to be careful and we had to make changes for his health. Our refrigerator never had anything hanging on it. We couldn’t have the magnets because they would mess with his pacemaker. We had to take it easy when we were home. I hardly ever got to host sleepovers, because my mother was worried about the extra stress it would cause. We all worried about my dad every day. If you had been my teacher or my classmate at that time in my life, you might not have known this about me. This anxiety and stress was something invisible that I carried with me each day.
There are so many people in our world who carry invisible burdens that we have no idea about when meeting them and seeing their outside shell.
What do we do when we meet these people and they somehow have wronged us?
Do we treat them with kindness? Do we try to understand where they are coming from? Sadly, a lot of the time, the answer is no.
Unfortunately, many people in our society have not learned to have empathy for others.
You can see it at any place where a customer is screaming at a clerk. You can see it on social media rants. You can see it anywhere, if you look around.
Our world is lacking in empathy. Our world is lacking in kindness.
Just the mere fact that there is such a trend as “random acts of kindness” shows that we are lacking in this department. Don’t get me wrong. I am all for doing as many acts of kindness as you can. I just think it says volumes that we started to see this need.
So, how do we create a society in which we encounter kindness every single day?
We create readers. Say what? Yes, we create readers.
Reading books develops empathy. Learning to get lost in the world of a story and to connect to the character and understand their plight, helps children (and adults) to learn to apply this in real life. Placing ourselves in the shoes of the main character gives us practice seeing the world from different perspectives.
But it is not enough to create individual readers, we must work to create reading communities. We need to help kids to love to read AND to love to talk about reading. By creating a community of readers, we help students to learn to empathize with the characters and to learn to communicate with others and create connections. We help them to come out of the shell of selfishness to a place of collaboration. We help them to talk about their own struggles and share their perspectives. We help them to see that treating others with kindness is the best way to do things.
This is no small task. Creating a community of readers is hard work. Helping children get over the selfishness that is prevalent in our society and learn to collaborate and connect is tough. But the chance we have to create a generation of kind individuals is too great a chance to pass up.
By sharing my experiences on my blog, I hope to inspire you to do the hard work of creating readers in your life and your classrooms. And in so doing, we will create kindness in the world.
Thanks for sharing your story. I like how you talk about the invisible burden that people carry, even our students. I ask myself, “Is there a child that needs me to say, ‘I’m glad you’re here?'” Maybe I can be the reason that child wants to come to school!
How lucky your students are!
I am honored to have been your teacher!
Encouraging children to read is made more difficult by tablets loaded with cartoons– colors! sounds!!!–allowing young viewers to zone out. How does a page with black letters compete?
Parents must limit screen time–have a family game night, reading to and with their children! Many tired parents rely on tablets to give them peace from their hectic day- and we can understand. But let us interact with our children and grandchildren. Screens don’t create empathy the way parents can we they say, “How do you think that character feels? How would you feel? What do you think he should do? “And more!
We need books more than ever!!!
Yes! x 100