How Do You Teach Empathy? — Jonathan Juravich

This is the transcript of Jonathan Juravich's TED-Ed Educator Talk on teaching empathy as an actionable skill rather than a soft skill or catchphrase.

Juravich, an elementary art educator and 2018 Ohio State Teacher of the Year, argues that common definitions like "walk in someone else's shoes" or "understanding and sharing the feelings of others" are too abstract for young children. The root of empathy is awareness: "a noticing of what is happening in and around you so that you can make a choice."

He learned this early through his blind grandmother, Josie. As a child he would describe Disney movies in detail — the desert backgrounds in Aladdin, the expressions on characters' faces — so she could be included. Those descriptions were an early form of perspective taking born from relationship.

In his own family he uses specific, repeated prompts with his five-year-old daughter (also named Josie):

• Tell me about a part of your day when you were proud.
• Tell me about a part of your day when you were frustrated.
• Tell me about a part of your day when you were really excited.
• Tell me about a part of your day where you laughed so hard you fell on the floor.

He models the same answers about his own day. The child quickly began noticing and reporting the feelings of friends ("my friend Ellie was sad when she didn’t get to play with the magnatiles").

In the classroom, after Hurricane Harvey hit Houston during an architecture unit, fourth graders moved from questions about buildings to imagining the impact on other children's art rooms and supplies. Juravich introduced artists who cover objects and houses with polka dots. The class built a five-foot house structure where each dot represented an art supply donated to a school in Houston. Awareness became concrete action.

Empathy here is not a feeling that stays inside. Awareness of self and others leads to observed behaviors and feelings, which leads to practical practice.

The source is the TED-Ed Educator Talks video featuring Jonathan Juravich. This transcript supplies the operational "how" — the awareness root and the concrete practice loop — that turns the four-qualities framework into something teachable and repeatable in the wiki.