Agency and Empathy

If you are an educator and take agency away from your students, you can not complain they are not doing well in your class. Or it's on the student if they are stressed out or anxious about your course. The teacher-professor-program coordinator constructed the ebb and flow, the pace of the class. No teacher intentionally makes learning difficult in their class. Many educators stick with bad ideas because they believe changing would make them look weak or let the students off. Many difficult courses or programs are challenging because of the structure rather than the content. I wrote a book about looking at my student's work and taking feedback over 27 years from my students, peers, and administrators to make learning accessible and fun in my classroom. Giving students a choice in the way they fulfill the objectives is equity.?

If you are an educator who talks about empathy, understand that empathy in the classroom gives the students agency so they can find their way into the work, not just follow your prescribed path. It is eminently hypocritical if you say, "If I change the requirements for one student, I need to change them for all students." That is the job, helping each student with what they need, not with the plan you came up with before they came into your classroom.?