Roots of Empathy. Mary Gordon
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education is broader than creating job-ready youth—it involves nurturing individuals who can be publicly useful and personally fulfilled. Education has a responsibility to develop citizens. Students who have good job skills but poor social and emotional skills may get a job, but will have trouble keeping it or getting promoted.
The Power of the Arts: Art is a vehicle that allows children the expression of a depth and complexity of emotion beyond what their words can convey. Music, art, and drama are portals to emotional literacy, a skill we all need to form strong relationships throughout our lives. In my work with struggling parents I have always found that paint, permission, and friendship can heal and connect. The coloured insert of children’s art has been included in this book to share the children’s insights. In their art, children speak to themselves as they paint what they feel instead of what they see. If we watch carefully, we may just learn from them.
Though I am a trained teacher, I find that I am also a trained learner, and my teachers have often been the most unlikely people. I believe that children have a great deal to teach us. And Roots of Empathy is a journey in which children frequently lead the way. I invite you to walk with the many children you will meet in this book and discover how they are changing our world.
I have written this book for everyone who touches the lives of children—not just the “usual suspects” like parents and teachers, but also those who work in organizations that provide programs or services to children. Children’s perspectives are important, and in the following pages, you will hear from them directly. The names of the children in this book are not real, but their stories are.
During the Nuremburg trials, one of the judges described the war crimes as a failure of empathy. Yet, in recent history, the world’s response to the tsunami of 2004 was a triumph of empathy. Normally, our differences define and separate us, providing the fodder for marginalization, bullying, and exclusion. If we were to listen to the language of the groups who are in a “hate relationship” with another group, they somehow manage to speak of the other group as less human—or so different that there can be no basis for human exchange. The children described in this book are able to see beyond differences to commonalities; the baby who visits the children in the classroom acts as a catalyst for developing empathy. Empathy is integral to solving conflict in the family, schoolyard, boardroom, and war room. The ability to take the perspective of another person, to identify commonalities through our shared feelings, is the best peace pill we have.
Political and spiritual leaders in the world are concerned about how our children are developing. Roots of Empathy has allies in both these spheres. His Holiness the Dalai Lama took a shine to Roots of Empathy during a public dialogue we had in Vancouver in October of 2006. One of the Dalai Lama’s comments in the dialogue concerned the prevention aspect of Roots of Empathy. He said, “Young children, as a result of negligence, they’re spoiled, then eventually they become troublesome then we try to regain that basic value; that doesn’t work. So I very much appreciate your special care from the early age.” He was amazed that the program was able to increase social and emotional competence and reduce aggression at the same time. He warmed to the idea of a baby as a teacher and delighted in having his own infant Roots of Empathy T-shirt. The Dalai Lama appreciates how Roots of Empathy teaches from both the mind and the heart. In the same breath he speaks about the “milk of compassion” and Roots of Empathy. The Dalai Lama understands the importance of empathy and agreed when I said that Roots of Empathy can raise the level of compassion. In 2009 the world’s first peace and education centre to have his name will be built in Vancouver, and Roots of Empathy will be part of that undertaking.
In 2007 Roots of Empathy was introduced in New Zealand with a three-year growth plan that involves three government ministries and corporate and foundation support. Prime Minister Helen Clark met with me and flew to Auckland for the official launch, which was held in a Roots of Empathy classroom. Prime Minister Clark has her finger on the heartbeat of the future. She is investing in the children of today for the New Zealand she wants tomorrow.
The Roots of Empathy classroom is creating citizens of the world—children who are developing empathic ethics and a sense of responsibility that takes the position that we all share the same lifeboat. These are the children who will build a more caring, peaceful, and civil society, child by child.
Roots of Empathy
IMAGINE A GRADE 3 CLASSROOM. Recess has just ended and the children are shouting across the room to one another, still caught up in the game that they played outside. The teacher is about to raise her hand—the cue for them to settle down. The Roots of Empathy instructor has arrived and is spreading a green blanket on the floor. It is as if a spell has been cast. Quietly, the children arrange themselves cross-legged on the floor around the blanket. The hush in the room is palpable. The classroom door opens. A young mother is standing there with her five-month-old baby. The baby is wriggling in his mother’s arms; his legs are drumming against his mother’s body. He is clearly excited. Without prompting, the children break out in a greeting song: “Hello, Tomas, how are you? How are you? How are you? Hello, Tomas, how are you? How are you today?”
Tomas and his mother walk around the green blanket greeting each child in turn. Mom sits down and places Tomas on his tummy; the children wait eagerly to see what he will do. It is time to ask Mom what life with Tomas has been like over the month since Tomas last visited the classroom. Has the baby laughed yet? Has Tomas tried any food? Can he roll over yet? Did his first tooth come in?
The instructor kneels on the blanket and holds up a toy. It is one that Tomas has not shown interest in before. It’s colourful, it has bold patterns, it has different textures and it makes a delightful jingling sound: a multisensory learning tool. In an earlier class the instructor has taught the students that babies learn through their senses, that neurons form synaptic connections from environmental stimuli. As the children watch Tomas’s face and body react to hearing the jingle, they snap their fingers—demonstrating the surge of electricity that is connecting neurons in Tomas’s brain. The children appreciate that Tomas has to coordinate vision and hearing to find the toy, just as they had to coordinate balancing and pedalling when learning to ride a two-wheeler. They continue watching closely as Tomas tries to locate where the jingle is coming from and, as his eyes find the toy, they snap their fingers again, but this time the snapping is accompanied by excited shouts of encouragement: “Way to go, Tomas!” Tomas’s brain is growing. And the children catch that moment of growth.
Tomas’s mother is impressed by the interest the children take in her son’s development and moved by their obvious excitement at every new thing Tomas learns.
The children have spent time with the instructor the previous week preparing for Tomas’s visit, predicting what he will be able to do. They will spend time in the week after Tomas’s visit exploring what they learned and connecting it to their own development and feelings. And then the big leap—gaining an understanding of their classmates’ feelings.
This is a snapshot of a few moments in a Roots of Empathy classroom. Tomas and his mother will visit this class every month for the school year. The children will be coached by the instructor to observe the parent–childrelationship, the baby’s development, the baby’s temperament, their own temperament and that of their classmates. They will learn