The Rejects Club

Chapter 31 - Empathy Is The Key

No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care. - Theodore Roosevelt

Monday 10th March

Jeremy had always been a sympathetic young man. Always a shoulder for his friends when they needed to cry, a good ear when they needed to get something off their chest or a bartender when they simply needed to get very, very drunk.

Sympathy when you thought about it, came quite easy. It was just the act of understanding that someone was having a rough time and in turn expressing your sorrow for them. Empathy on the other hand was always a tricky one, but his mother had always instilled in him that empathy was integral to becoming not just a good teacher, but a life changing one.

She told him any teacher could be sympathetic; listen to the troubles his or her students had with an open ear and express sadness for what they were going through. That was good to an extent but it was still an exclusive kind of teaching. Empathy on the other hand involved delving into your own vulnerable side in order to truly relate to the child. That was inclusive teaching. It was what made the difference.

So far Jeremy had tried this approach as much as possible, even if his own experiences seemed tame compared to what his students were going through; anything was better than nothing. With Mitch he would talk about how the teaching world was extremely ruthless, and how many of his friends had given up on their dreams because the rate of pay was so low. With Avi he spoke about his own experiences with bullying growing up, how the kids had made fun of him because he preferred choir over football.

And even though he couldn't relate as directly with Kirstie and Kevin he could still find a certain level of commonality. He could talk to Kirstie about how the pressures doing right by your family could put you under a great amount of stress, and how that had lead him to make rash decisions in the past; and he let Kevin know that his own father had walked out on their family when Jeremy was still very small, with absolutely no explanation bar a simple note that said he'd found someone else.

Yeah...even though most of his problems were a fraction of what his kids were going through, opening up to them on that personal level and letting them know that he had felt those same emotions they were having meant they could see him as more than just someone they had to get grades for and respect and obey at all times. He was a real, living, breathing person. One who could hurt just as much as they did.

It had been a long process, with his efforts being met with sarcastic remarks or comments of "You would never understand Mr L," but by now, even the most hard-headed of his students - i.e. Kirstie Maldonado - would occasionally talk to him about stuff going on in their home lives that was causing them agitation.

In relation, for the last few days of the previous week Jeremy had suspected the youngest had been hiding something from him. And not something like the newest hiding place for Kevin's packets of sweets. No, there was something troubling that boy a great deal. His smile wasn't quite as bright, his chatter not as enthusiastic.

Most people would see Scott as an open book, and the young boy was very open up to a point. He was always engaging in conversations and adding his opinion to the mix. He would laugh, whine, shout and, unfortunately, swear whenever he felt the need to. The youngster wore his heart on his sleeve like it was his trademark. But there was always something simmering just under the surface with Scott. Jeremy didn't know what it was, but either way he would never unveil the whole picture with the blond until it was revealed willingly by the kid himself.

Well today was his lucky day it seemed.

He had noticed his students had become slightly restless during an afternoon lesson, crowding around Scott's desk, and quietly told them to get on with their work and sort the issue out afterwords, or if it was that important, to tell him now.