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Country School Students Practice Empathy

Recently, The Country School 5th graders read A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park as part of the school’s special emphasis on the theme of empathy this year. A Long Walk to Water is based on a true story that involves two characters, Salva (a real person) and Nya (a fictitious character), living in South Sudan at different times. Nya walks twice a day, every day, to a pond to get water for her family, but since the pond is so far away from her home, she has no time for anything else. Ultimately, Salva rescues the village by building a well there.

Practicing empathy by walking in Nya’s shoes, 5th grade students and teachers filled 20 one-gallon jugs of water and walked a little more than one mile, a shorter distance than Nya’s trek, on The Country School’s campus and the adjacent Blue Trail. At the end of their journey, the students reflected on the difficulty of the task, acknowledged taking clean water for granted, and recognized the importance of clean water, especially during this time of COVID-19.

For more information, visit www.thecountryschool.org.