Recognize when you “otherize” someone – when you [erroneously] see them as some completely not connected to you. Then cast the world through their eyes. What are they experiencing? Log the entire experience on the dedicated website. What you think, what you feel, what you learn. Students often have a difficult time with this. Empathizing with someone doesn’t mean you agree with them, or think that they are right. It just means you see things (at least for a moment) how you think they are seeing them.
The time that I “otherized” somebody else was a few years ago when my younger brother confronted me insisting that it was his turn for the xbox. In the midst of a fun game with my friends, I found this absurd. I got the tv first, so he should have to wait. Looking back from his point of view, I now see that I was the one who was hogging the xbox and not sharing. I was caught up in the moment and didn’t realize that I needed to be more sharing.
