Today we were lucky enough to take part in a project that was part of the Empathy Museum - designed to help people think about what it's like to literally walk in someone else's shoes.
A Mile in My Shoes project looks like a big shoe-box.
Then each of the boys got given headphones and an audio player. Each audio player had a life-story being told by the previous owner of the shoes.
This was an amazing experience and instigated lots of great discussions. How are our lives different/the same as these people? If the person whose story you had listened to was a classmate, how could you try and help them? If we could give President Trump 1 pair of shoes to walk in whose shoes would they be? A refugee father? A victim of gun violence or their family members? A child being held in an immigration centre?
A Mile in My Shoes project looks like a big shoe-box.
Inside the shoebox the lovely volunteer helped the boys choose shoes.
Finn was given these shoes that belonged to a Native American teenager
Patch was given these red shoes that belonged to an 11 year old girl.
Isaac got these bright yellow crocs belonging to a 11 year old boy.
Then the boys got to walk around Downtown Denver listening to the stories, while literally wearing that person's shoes.
The boys then all listened to a second story - one of which was the inspiring story of a triathlete who wore this leg (and these shoes).
At the end the boys all got to write about their experience on a note card...
...and stick it on this wall where all the other participants reflections on the experience were also posted.
We also loved these quotes that lined the shoebox walls.
If you'd like to find out more about this project you can follow this link: http://www.empathymuseum.com/
Wow!!!! What a wonderful thing to do and experience! I was moaning about a person and my hubby said to me had I asked how the other person was? Had I considered that they might be going through things I didn’t know about! Yes I think we should all spend some time reflecting on walking in someone else’s shoes! To feel understood and listened too! Thank you for making me take some time to do that!!!!
ReplyDeleteBright yellow crocs, now there's a story !!!
ReplyDeleteIt was such a cool story Karen. It was about a kid who was using a movie making machine and there was a transformer box and he forgot to put it in. So it sent 240 of electricity through him and the only thing that saved his life were the yellow crocs, because they were made of plastic they didn't allow the electrical current to travel into the ground. I hope you're well. Isaac
DeleteWhat an amazing experience!
ReplyDeleteHI Zach and Anna, Thanks for commenting on my blog. It was pretty cool to get to have this experience. How are you Zach? I hope you're having a good term at school. I'm looking forward to coming back and seeing you! from Isaac.
DeleteWow! This is a super cool project :) Thank you for sharing it with us. As you know we have created a Community Army this term and are loving looking at ways we can give back to our community. This project is also a very good/timely reminder that we never really know what is going on for others. It certainly opened up some great discussion in our class. The students are now discussing how we could bring a project like this to our community.
ReplyDeleteJenna, Jill and Room6/7