Deepening Empathy
A Study of Parzival
By Wibke Fretz, PWHS Humanities & German Language Teacher
Eleventh graders live on the threshold between adolescence and adulthood. They live in the moment when the focus on their self—their ego—expands, and they become more receptive to the world around them. While their intellect broadens and abstract, philosophical discussions open their minds, reaching them is still done best through their feeling life, through an emotional approach.
Wolfram von Eschenbach’s medieval story Parzival is traditionally covered in Waldorf schools at the end of the junior year, when students embark on their journey into adulthood, just as the hero of the story embarks on his. In its essence, the book covers different trials and ways of becoming an adult, crowning empathy as one of the capstones of this human development. Only when Parzival has developed the ability to see the other and to empathize with their suffering, can he find it within himself to reach out to offer his help. This is when he becomes truly human.
“‘My Father’s House’ quickly restored my faith in humanity.”
The genius of Rudolf Steiner lies in placing this book in the curriculum right at the point when our students embark on the same journey. In order to help the adolescents with this development, many Waldorf high schools include service projects in this morning lesson. But to me, there was a step missing.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines empathy as ”the ability to share someone else's feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person's situation.” How could I help my students with this developmental step? What would allow them to cross the boundary from just helping to relating? I decided on a multi-tiered approach that would combine information with service and experience, and would allow the students to connect to our neighbors in need, specifically those without homes, on a personal level.
Parzival makes many mistakes on his way into adulthood. He has to rely on others, learn from his mistakes, and finally realize that he not only ought to forgive himself, but also needs to offer help when he can. Humans make mistakes. What can we who are in a position to offer help do? How can we overcome the barriers between “us” and “them”? By focusing on the situations of unhoused students in particular, I hoped to give the eleventh graders an opportunity to relate more readily. What is it like to go to school while being unhoused? What are the particular challenges and barriers that students who experience houselessness face on a daily basis?
As an introduction, we visited the “My Father’s House” family shelter in Gresham, where we received a tour and volunteered, doing some cleaning and yard work. The next experience was meant to become more personal. One Thursday, the class left directly after school, taking everything that they would need for the remainder of the day, and night, with them.
“I enjoyed the tour of the Porch Light. It was extremely touching to see that it is much more than just a place for youth to spend the night, it is a community that teaches and inspires the youth to care for self.”
We took the MAX downtown, and visited the Porch Light youth shelter, who offer a three tiered approach to helping unhoused adolescents get off the streets.
After the visit, we walked to the Tom McCall Waterfront Park to have a brown-bag dinner that was based on the meal plan of the North Clackamas Public School district (unhoused students would have access to school meals).
Luckily for us, the rain had stopped just as we left the shelter. After dinner, we walked to the Burnside Bridge where we participated in the orientation and then at three different stations of the Night Strike, a support event for Portland’s unhoused population that takes place under the bridge every Thursday throughout the year.
One group of students helped guests pick out new clothing, another served dinner, and a third socialized with guests during the event. After volunteering, we helped to pack and clean up before returning to the PWS campus to spend the night (in our version of) unhoused, outside. The students had scouted out possible sleeping spots in prior weeks and had decided on one of the wooden structures on Walnut Hill, the courtyard, and the greenhouse in our garden.
Each group had chaperones and settled for the night. No tents. Just sleeping bags and cardboard to lay on. For me personally, this was the sixth time that I had organized this for a class, and it turned out to be the hardest night yet.
While it luckily stayed dry, it was really cold! The PWS campus is very noisy: buses and trains run basically all night, deliveries to the lumber yard happen early in the morning.
A night gets very long when one wakes up about every 30 minutes.
After a quick and simple breakfast, the students had a normal day of school ahead of them. Our Friday started with a visit by Outside the Frame, a group of unhoused filmmakers.
I hope that the glimpse of what an unhoused student might go through on a daily basis will create more empathy in our students for their situation and their struggles. Only if we learn to relate, will we find connection and thus hopefully bring about change - change that this world desperately needs.
“Night Strike is one of the greatest opportunities I have ever been given. It was a priceless chance to connect with people on a human level, and help them at the same time. It is an experience I will treasure for the rest of my life, because of the incredible conversations I was able to have and people I assisted.”
The situation in downtown Portland, Oregon in 2022 is inhumane and can be dangerous. I am full of gratitude to my wonderful partners at Janus Youth Services and Because People Matter to assist me in planning this experience in a safe and realistic manner, to the eleventh grade parents for their trust in me and for volunteering, and to my colleagues for their support. Special thanks go to Arianna Urias, Millie Kimes, and Hunter Marcus for spending the night with us!
