Understanding

The Art of Seeing: Cultivating Self-Awareness, Empathy, and Belonging

By Raine Dawn Valentine, posted on Oct 29, 2026

Middle-school students are still discovering who they are, and asking them to study their own reflection can make them feel incredibly vulnerable. Instead of beginning with demonstrations or expectations of perfection, I hand each student a mirror and ask them to simply draw what they see. Their first self-portrait isn’t graded or corrected. It’s an honest starting point.

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