With the wave of recent tragedies on a national scale, local school officials have been working to educate students on empathy. Teachers at Wright City East and West Elementary schools have been …
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With the wave of recent tragedies on a national scale, local school officials have been working to educate students on empathy.
Teachers at Wright City East and West Elementary schools have been using situations like Hurricane Harvey in Houston to teach students how to understand the emotions of and extend support to those they have never met.
What began as a connection through administrators turned into a massive act of generosity by students and staff.
“There was a Google document going around called Principals Helping Principals, where you could partner with a school to help,” said West Elementary Principal Patrick Wallace. “We ended up connecting with the Gabriela Mistral Center for Early Childhood (in Houston).”
Each class was assigned to collect specific items the Houston school had indicated they needed. West Elementary sold “Wright City Cares” wristbands to raise money for hurricane victims, second-graders collected school supplies, third-graders collected nonperishable food items, and fourth-graders collected personal care items, fifth-graders collected cleaning supplies and staff collected clothing items. East Elementary collected stuffed animals, games and blankets.
Students from each of the schools pulled together to collect 4,500 items to be sent to those impacted by the storms.
R-II Board member Heidi Box helped coordinate transportation by offering free delivery through her employer.
“The kids felt good about being able to help others,” said Wallace. “One of the things we’ve been trying to teach them is empathy. We want them to understand what it would be like to be somebody else and not necessarily just feel sorry for them.”
Teachers provide lessons on the difference between “feeling sorry for somebody and feeling sorry like somebody.”
“If that were our school that was affected, what would we want people to do for us,” said Wallace. “That is the message we tried to convey to the kids. It was really cool to see them bond through the experience.”
Wright City West and Wright City West elementary schools collected over 4,000 items for families affected by Hurricane Harvey at Gabriela Mistral Center for Early Childhood in the Houston Independent School District. West Elementary sold "Wright City Cares" wristbands to raise money, 2nd graders collected school supplies, 3rd Graders collected non-perishable food items, and 4th Graders collected personal care items, 5th Graders collected cleaning supplies and our staff collected clothing items. East Elementary collected stuffed animals, games, and blankets. The schools found each other through an online Google program called “Principals Helping Principals." Here, some elementary students pose with items they collected. Record photo/Derrick Forsythe.
