Sympathy vs Empathy

     In our US History Class, we learned the differences between Sympathy and Empathy. Our teacher described to us that sympathy is feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune. She also described to us that empathy is the intellectual identification or vicarious experience of the feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of another. To empathize with someone is to put yourself in their shoes and really try to understand another persons condition from their perspective.
     It is possible to to empathize with someone even if you do not necessarily agree with them. An example of this is trying to empathize with slave owners in the South. Even though I completely disagree with slavery and have never been a slave owner before it is possible to empathize with them because if you put yourself int heir shoes, you might discover reasons why they did what they did. For example, it made it easier for them to make money faster.
     The ability to empathize with people is an important skill in US History because it allows us to understand why people did what they did back then and why they might have thought it was okay. Also, it is important to know with sides of the story in history.