Every Knight Matters
Weekly Wellness Newsletter
October 17, 2022
GOALS FOR THE WEEK
WEEKLY WORDS OF WISDOM
UNDERSTANDING AND WALKING IN THEIR SHOES
Think about all of the shoes that exist - sneakers, ballet shoes, cleats, boots, sandals, flip flops, slip-ons, loafers, and on and on. There are shoes for every situation, and they are unique for a reason. Just like there are many types of shoes, each of us walk creates our own path, taking our own journey, and experiencing the world through different perspectives. WALKING IN SOMEONE’S SHOES helps us to UNDERSTAND someone’s path, journey or experience.
Walking in someone else’s shoes doesn’t mean that you literally wear someone else’s sneakers. Walking in someone else’s shoes means that we STEP FORWARD to authentically understand another person’s experiences. We work towards understanding the person’s experience even if we have experienced something similar.
The thing is, walking in someone else’s shoes isn’t always easy. Sometimes, we think we can relate to someone’s experience because we have been in the same situation. That part is pretty good because we may know what it feels like to have been there. However, truly WALKING IN SOMEONE’S SHOES means that we set aside our own experience and focus on their situation. We step out of our own shoes and see how things may be for someone else. When we do, we gain a greater appreciation for their individual circumstances. We show compassion and UNDERSTANDING, even if we haven’t gone through what they experienced. We gain UNDERSTANDING that our world can be complex as well as exciting. When we WALK IN SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES, we create a more connected, compassionate and UNDERSTANDING place for all of us.
FAMILY FOCUS
WORKING TOGETHER
One of the most amazing and challenging things about a school community is the combination of 600 unique students and 50 unique adults. We have the opportunity every day to learn from each other, gain new perspectives, challenge our thinking, and grow together. We are also faced with personality conflicts that come with any large group of people. As we work through the challenge of learning about each other and how to work together, we must learn to be more understanding. Everyone in our building has a story. Every story is different. Let's work to increase the level of understanding in working with those who have different experiences, perspectives, and stories. This week, take some time as a family to discuss the following questions.
- What are ways people show UNDERSTANDING?
- When someone is showing empathy, what might they be doing?
- When was a time that someone showed empathy by being UNDERSTANDING towards you?
- What is it like when someone truly UNDERSTANDS what you are going through?
- What might get in the way of being able to UNDERSTAND someone’s experience or WALK IN THEIR SHOES?
- What might our world be like if we were better able to WALK IN SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES?
- Have you ever tried to WALK IN SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES? What was it like?
- What might our world be like if we all worked towards WALKING IN SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES?
- How does WALKING IN SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES remind us of how much and why we matter?