Lower School Art Project Explores Empathy by “Walking in Other’s Shoes”
Westridge School’s Lower School art classes took a walk in someone else’s shoes in honor of the year’s theme that was introduced by Head of School Elizabeth J. McGregor at Convocation: empathy and connection. “It was a really great theme to start the year off with,” said Art Teacher Val Trimarchi. “While they were working on the project, we talked about what empathy is and thought about different situations and how we can ‘walk in other people’s shoes,’ like when you’re cut off on the freeway you can either think ‘what a jerk!’ or you can try to walk in their shoes and think about what they’re going through. Maybe the driver is rushing because his wife is having a baby and he needs to get to the hospital!”
Students “painted in each other’s shoes” for four activities: tracing and decorating each other’s footprints, decorating foot-shaped “puzzle pieces” that were combined to create murals, constructing paper and tape shoes, drawing shoes, and designing expressive soles on footprints that are currently displayed going all around the Burgess Gallery in the Main Hall.
Westridge School, 324 Madeline Drive, Pasadena, (626) 799-1053 ext. 200 or visit www.westridge.org.