How Geography Builds Empathy in Middle School

By Will Piper '96

Today, perhaps more than ever, educators need to teach students the values of empathy, compassion, kindness, and respect for others. The art of teaching involves not only the dispensing of facts but also learning of cultures, needs, and perspectives that may not match our own. I strive each year to focus on teaching my students to learn, understand, and relate to different groups of people from around the globe with the hope of cultivating in them a sense of insight, empathy, and a desire to go forward and take action. 

Learning About Our Similarities and Differences

Throughout the course of my 20 years of teaching 5th grade at USM, we start each school year by reading a book called “Children Just Like Me,” which is published by UNICEF. This book has undergone many different editions throughout the years, but its message has remained the same. I love teaching this book because it’s a great resource to show the students how children around the world are similar and uniquely different—which is the central theme that we study throughout the year in World Cultural Geography.
 
The book does a great job of illustrating, through photos and images, the differences that children in other countries might experience, whether in clothes, schools, homes, food, etc., but also their many similarities. Almost all children around the globe attend some type of school, enjoy some form of recreational sports and games, and love being with their families. We also study how children’s geographies and available natural resources affect their lifestyles and how they live. As students learn more about their peers around the world, they build cultural empathy and compassion for others, whether they live across the globe or across the street. 

Taking Action

As a teacher who strongly believes in helping empower students to use their interests and passions to develop a greater sense of themselves and their place in not just our local community, but the global community too, it has been wonderful to see kids take action.  During this recent pandemic, one of my former students took the teaching to a whole new level when she developed a global club and met weekly with other students around the world. In this club, children from several continents meet and discuss a variety of topics ranging from celebrating different holidays, to doing a study of different regions of the world. This is a great example of a student who has cultivated an insight about how others live, developed empathy for others, and now is taking world geography to the next level creating a group where kids can connect and share. This year, two students took the message of "Children Just Like Me" and brought in their own homemade shofars to school to share with their classmates about the traditions of the Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur. Students and their families at USM have shared so much wonderful information about their own traditions and customs as we are truly a diverse community of learners with people celebrating rich traditions rooted in all corners of our globe.

Fostering Global Friendships

Another way that we teach empathy in my 5th grade World Cultural Geography class is by speaking with others from a variety of geographic regions. For students who have had me in 5th grade over the past decade, there is a good chance that they’ll remember my dear friend Mr. Pedro. Pedro Aparicio is an educator whom I met online through the Global Education Conference Network. He teaches at the Northridge School in Mexico City, an all-boys school that is very similar in terms of mission and academic rigor to USM. Aparicio and his students are active participants in our lessons, and have taught our 5th graders about unique Mexican traditions, such as Dia de Los Muertos and las posadas. My students, meanwhile, have taught Aparicio and his classes about our own traditions. He and I share a mutual passion for connecting students in authentic and meaningful ways to help them learn from one another and foster that deeper sense of empathy and compassion. 

My classes and I also frequently connect with real children and teachers in regions of the world that we are studying, including Melbourne, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; Cape Coast, Ghana; Abuja, Nigeria, and many others. It is one thing to think about geography as simply facts and figures, and another to think of it as human geography—a portal to cultivating a greater understanding of one another as humans, all of who are both similar and uniquely different.

About Will Piper ’96:

Will Piper ’96 has worked at University School of Milwaukee since 2002. Prior to his current role as assistant director of alumni relations and reunion giving, he served as the 5th grade World Cultural Geography teacher, a 5th grade coordinator, the Middle School athletics coordinator, and intramurals coordinator and coach. He has a passion for teaching and exploring world cultures and customs. He holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s degree in education with a focus on leadership from Cardinal Stritch University.