Open AccessKindness Counts: Encouraging Empathy in Secondary School Library Programs
Author(s) -
Molly Foust
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
iasl conference proceedings
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2562-8372
DOI - 10.29173/iasl7853
Subject(s) - empathy , exhibition , information literacy , psychology , literacy , kindness , pedagogy , medical education , social psychology , political science , medicine , art , visual arts , law
What is the role of the school library in creating a compassionate school culture? How can we forge a stronger connection between empathy and literacy? Why are libraries the best place to teach the communication skills that facilitate empathy? Inspired by recent research proving the connection between literacy and empathy (Castano and Comer 2013), we decided to make empathy a priority in our library services.
Our two primary goals were to 1) create literacy-based programs that would encourage empathy 2) to encourage the exhibition of empathetic behaviors by training a library volunteer corps. We designed simple activities to encourage both empathy and literacy simultaneously. Our anecdotal survey positively reflected that students and staff noticed a more caring, empathetic library environment.