My Shoes
The article "Developing Empathy: Walk a mile in someone's shoes" describes how empathy is the ability to connect to someone else's emotions and then describes how to develop and use empathy. According to the article, trying to think of a situation from another person's point of view and their motives helps along with being compassionate and not judging only based on first impressions. The author believes that "empathy is a learned skill." If the advice from The Great Gatsby is followed, empathy may be developed. Empathy towards people with disadvantages is necessary to refrain from criticism.
Although the author says that empathy can be learned, I believe that everyone has different perspectives which makes true empathy impossible in some situations. From this comes the phrase "step into my shoes." Even if you get to know someone well enough that it feels acceptable to judge them, their situation is still being viewed from an outside perspective. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses and it is important to remember this. For example, someone who finds it easy to speak their mind may judge a quiet person who finds it difficult to speak up. It is impossible to know how someone feels unless you have lived through all of their experiences yourself. You can only attempt to grasp how life under someone else's circumstances feels, and it is unfair to judge someone when you do not know how life truly is for them. Even the criticism seems to be warranted with a disadvantage, the disadvantaged person still should not be judged because from their perspective things are different. This is why it is important to think of disadvantaged people and whether or not they should really be criticized.
Although the author says that empathy can be learned, I believe that everyone has different perspectives which makes true empathy impossible in some situations. From this comes the phrase "step into my shoes." Even if you get to know someone well enough that it feels acceptable to judge them, their situation is still being viewed from an outside perspective. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses and it is important to remember this. For example, someone who finds it easy to speak their mind may judge a quiet person who finds it difficult to speak up. It is impossible to know how someone feels unless you have lived through all of their experiences yourself. You can only attempt to grasp how life under someone else's circumstances feels, and it is unfair to judge someone when you do not know how life truly is for them. Even the criticism seems to be warranted with a disadvantage, the disadvantaged person still should not be judged because from their perspective things are different. This is why it is important to think of disadvantaged people and whether or not they should really be criticized.