The in-class discussions of the EdTalk books was one that brought forth a lot of great discussions. Though there were a number ok different books about various different topics, our class seemed to stumble upon the same themes and conversations. My group read a the book Educated by Tara Westover, an insightful book about higher education and one woman’s quest to such. The memoir follows Tara on her journey to education made impossible up until this point by her strict and abusive religious background. All of the books read and shared were stories about people we could find in our classrooms one day. One of the biggest insights I took from these discussions was the importance of empathy. Obviously, empathy is something that most of us aspiring to be teacher posses and its importance is understood. With every situation presented in these books, empathy was always the first answer; the power or caring is unimaginable. Another powerful I took away from these discussions was just how common these things are. It is easy to get caught up in out own lives and diminish or ignore the struggles of other people. These discussions though were a powerful reminder that we will teach students with many of these struggles. This is a reality we will face as teachers, so understanding some of what we may face and understanding how best to help those students was very insightful. Teaching is an act of service, and to be able to serve our students we must be informed.
