Restorative Justice in the Classroom: Creating Empathy and Responsibility

| Originally posted by Times 10 Publications | According to the Civil Rights Data Collection, of the 49 million students enrolled in public schools in 2011–2012, 3.5 million were suspended in school, 3.45 million were suspended out of school, and 130,000 were expelled.1 Another concerning fact from this source is that Black students are suspended … Read more

Fostering Empathy with Inclusive eBooks

A podcast with author Duchess Harris How can schools learn from the past and embrace our differences today? That’s a question Duchess Harris reflects on every day. Harris, J.D. Ph.D., is an accomplished professor of American studies and political science at Macalester College. She’s also well known within the K‒12 community. Harris is the creator … Read more

The Link between Empathy and Adversity

| By Andrea Drouillard | “You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.”  This quote by J. K. Rowling rings true for me.  I firmly believe that true empathy cannot exist without experiencing hardship.  Facing adversity head on is a way of life for … Read more

Tools of the Trade: Empathy, Respect, Openness,
Communications, and the Library Mission

Posted on November 4, 2015
During the time of unrest in Ferguson, we at the Ferguson Municipal Public Library (FMPL) made a conscious decision to simply stay open for our community. We forged many vital relationships during those difficult days by providing empathy, respect, and comfort to the people in our community.

Empathy and Respect – Keeping our doors open during the hard days created a shift in how the people of Ferguson thought of their library. The empathy and respect we showed our patrons created a synergistic boost to the community as a whole.

Understand patrons, and respect them as people. Everything else grows from this, but you have to really mean it. If you care deeply about your community, it shows in every conversation, decision, and service. This cannot be an abstract thingcaring in aggregate but not in specific. It’s about building actual relationships. After all, we serve each patron as a person, individually.

Read moreTools of the Trade: Empathy, Respect, Openness,
Communications, and the Library Mission