Do You Have Empathy? Are You Sure?

A staff person at the school I work at had lunch duty the other day, monitoring the students as they ate their lunch in the cafeteria, and she came by to gossip about her lunch shift.  Apparently, she'd noticed a magnet (Gifted and Talented) kid sitting alone apart from a group of non-magnet kids.  She decided to promote inter-class cooperation and good social skills and went to suggest this kid should slide down the couple of vacant seats between him and the small group of non-magnet kids and be friendly.  The magnet kid reportedly replied that he “doesn't mix with normal classes”.  According to this staff member, she immediately responded with a well-tempered remark about that not being very polite when what she'd really wanted to say was something about how that kid was such a snob and doesn't he realize how offensive that was to the normals of the world and that if he wants to get anywhere in the world, he'd better get off his high horse... 

Now take a moment and think about your personal response to the situation.  Go on; I’ll wait.

 

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