Kim Leddy
“We need to work on our empathy.”
Name: Kim Leddy
Role: Facilitator at the Mosaic Program
Fun fact: Kim enjoys creeking
(squatting on a creek bed
looking for little creatures)
Sitting cross-legged on the floor with sleeves rolled up to
show her tattoos, Kim Leddy is not the image most people produce when the word
‘teacher’ is mentioned. As a facilitator at the Mosaic Program, she strives to
challenge the norm and provide a safe space for teenagers to express their
thoughts and explore their identities. Mosaic is different from the typical
high school because Mosaic students choose to go there, which creates a greater
sense of community and changes the culture.
Digging deeper into school cultures and students’
individuality, Kim talks about the importance of ‘voice’. Voice is not
considered in the way it used to be, because we live in an age of testing.
However, part of education is “made up of the things you can’t test and helping
a young person on their journey to find out who they are”.
Because of the small community and mutual respect between
facilitators and students, safety isn’t much of an issue. Mosaic is a hotspot
of true diversity, and a soft place to land for students. At other schools
she’s worked at, Kim didn’t feel so safe because she was closed off in a room
and felt disconnected from the rest of the school.
Having a gun in the classroom tells the students that,
“there is danger here” and will hurt not only the culture of the classroom, but
will harm the profession of teaching. People have the idea that urban schools
are “pits of violence”, but that isn’t true. Most school shootings have
happened in white, privileged, suburban areas. Already stereotyped as thugs and
criminals, students who live in the city will be affected by the decision to
have more guns in schools. Just knowing their teachers have guns will reinforce
stereotypes and will damage their potential and openness to learning.
To change this culture of mass shootings and violence as a
society, we can create more empathy. Our communities have a lack of connection,
especially out in the suburbs. Kim says she thinks the reason school shootings
have been more pervasive since the 90’s is because of our lack of connection.
The internet is an amazing way to learn, trade cultural ideas, and make the
world smaller, but it is not a substitution for human connection. Things like
empathy have been thrown out the window, and that is something we need to grow;
“we need to work on empathy”.
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