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This is part 2 of the series  |  Read Part 1  |  Read Part 3

It is a difficult argument to make to a diminishing audience of readers in a world wedded to data that literature can lay the groundwork for more empathic children and young adults—and therefore a stronger citizenry. That more than ever the value of reading about the lives of others may serve as an antidote to the virus of narcissism and segregated systems of belief and class. In primary and secondary schools we have the last captive audience we may ever have for this task. (more…)

This is part 1 of the series  |  Read Part 2  |  Read Part 3

At the age of twelve, my grandmother, who knew I was already an avid reader, gave me the novel Another Country by James Baldwin, which was quickly followed by “Sonny’s Blues” and The Fire Next Time. I realized later that she had gifted me these books because I had already expressed an interest in justice and civil rights, and Baldwin’s searing prose was relevant to the time and interest. I remember these texts because I hold them responsible for nurturing in me a nascent empathy for the struggles of Americans who were not like me. Baldwin’s whole premise is that Black and White Americans are tied together in a blood knot, and that the fate of the country is bound to this recognition and the white race’s understanding of its own destructive innocence. It is somewhat counter-intuitive that words in a book can prepare readers for the experience of empathy. Words are abstract, after all, while we think of direct experience as concrete. How can we walk in “another man’s shoes” when we aren’t actually walking? (more…)