Feelings First

This post was written by 起点传媒member听Carol Jago. Carol Jago will interview Marc Brackett in an 起点传媒event on September 17鈥攍earn more here.听

The educational landscape has been reshaped by the coronavirus. Familiar paths are strewn with obstacles; the way forward is clouded by uncertainties. Although some worry about students鈥� learning loss, I fear that we may find ourselves bogged down in the Slough of Despond and become lost.

Yet the work hasn鈥檛 changed.

Deep down, we know that learning is an emotional experience. Acknowledging those feelings, both our own and our students鈥�, will be critical to surviving this unfamiliar territory called the 2020鈥�21 school year.

In his book Permission to Feel, Marc Brackett explains how the vocabulary of emotions can be, and needs to be, taught. He believes that without the language to express what we are feeling at moments, the feelings remain inchoate. Labeling emotions without recourse to figures of speech like 鈥淚鈥檓 feeling blue鈥� or 鈥渄own in the dumps鈥� legitimizes our response to adversity.

He goes on to say, 鈥淭he more words we can use to describe what we feel, the better able we鈥檒l be to understand ourselves and to make ourselves understood by others. And if our counterparts, too, have robust emotional vocabularies, it will be much easier for us to understand them鈥攏ot just to empathize but also to help them, when needed, to regulate and modulate the feelings they experience鈥� (112).

Generating sympathy isn鈥檛 enough. We need to nurture empathy. Fortunately, English teachers have at their fingertips a powerful tool for teaching empathy鈥� literature.

Books situate social emotional issues within real world settings, both past and present. They invite classroom conversations about controversial issues and allow room for children to ask themselves, 鈥淚 wonder what I would have done? I wonder what I might have felt?鈥�

A new picture book by Chris Naytlor-Ballesteros called The Suitcase serves as a perfect example of how a simple text can stimulate complex conversations. Appropriate for readers of every age, it tells the story of a strange creature who comes to town carrying only a suitcase. When asked by the native creatures what it holds, the newcomer responds with a hard-to-believe description of a teacup, a table, a cabin, and a hillside. While the exhausted stranger sleeps, they break into the suitcase. As a metaphor for how outsiders are too often treated upon arrival, the story explores the creatures鈥� regrets at their actions as well as their attempt to make up for their assumptions. It invites discussion about emigration.

Another book of historical fiction that invites young readers to walk in another person鈥檚 shoes is Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte. Set in a deaf community on Martha鈥檚 Vineyard in 1805, the novel is narrated by 11-year-old Mary Lambert, deaf from birth and living in a community where everyone can sign. Mary鈥檚 story also offers a fascinating window into post-Revolutionary War years. The island community鈥檚 prejudice against the Wampanoag native population echoes the mainlanders鈥� view of the deaf as lesser beings.

For middle and high school readers, an outstanding book for increasing the national empathy quotient is Melba Pattillo Beals鈥檚 childhood memoir, March Forward, Girl. Years before she signed on to be one of the Little Rock Nine integrating Central High School, Melba was a little girl growing up in the Jim Crow South, watching the adults she valued most in the world being disrespected at every turn.

Interested in Joining a Conversation with Marc Brackett and Carol Jago on September 17?听

起点传媒will join in conversation with Marc Brackett, Yale professor and author of Permission to Feel on Thursday, September 17 to explore the ways in which we can understand our emotions and work through them to live healthier lives.听Dr. Brackett will be interviewed by 起点传媒member and former President Carol Jago.听Visit this page to register.