Childcare expert to talk about developing empathy in children
Since 2000, youngsters in B.C. elementary schools have been taught more than reading, writing and arithmetic.
They are also being taught empathy.
They are learning that through Roots of Empathy.
In the past 18 years, more than 155,000 schoolchildren in B.C. have been taught how to improve their empathy, which is also known as “emotional literacy.”
The program isn’t about adults keeping track of acts of kindness or telling students how to act or feel, said Mary Gordon, the founding president of Roots of Empathy.
It is centred around bringing a parent and baby and instructor into a school to work with students in a classroom for the whole year.
“The idea is that the children gather around the baby on the green blanket,” Gordon said in a telephone interview.
“They ’re coached to observe the baby’s emotional cues and to take the perspective of the baby.”
The instructor follows a methodology Gordon calls “experiential questioning.”
“We ask them questions all the time: What would happen if ? Do you remember when? How do you think the baby is feeling ? Let’s look at the baby’s face.
“All of these questions are about helping children learn how to think, learn how to feel, and to develop a language for their feelings.”
Gordon is speaking Friday at a Roots of Empathy Baby Celebration at Creekside Community Centre in Vancouver.
The event thanks the babies, parents and instructors who have volunteered for the program.
Roots of Empathy is a Canadian success story. Gordon created the organization in Ontario in 1996.
Since then, it has expanded to every province across the country, as well as internationally to countries that include the U.S., the United Kingdom and Germany.
Since 2000, Roots of Empathy has taught about 800,000 children around the world.
In B.C., Roots of Empathy’s 353 programs in 81 per cent of school districts have mainly taught empathy to children in kindergarten and Grades 1 and 2.
Initially introduced in B.C. to combat bullying, Roots of Empathy is now focusing on developing children’s social and emotional learning, which includes empathy.
Empathy, she said, develops in an infant’s first year of life out of the relationship between the child and a parent or parents.
But not every child is so lucky. “What we’re able to do is raise the empathy of all children — no matter where they started,” Gordon said.
“Research shows that the program significantly reduces bullying and aggression. What I’m happy about is that it increases the children’s ability to share, to be kind, to care, and to be able to relate to others.”
Boys and girls both have the same capacity to be kind, she said.
What differs is how boys and girls are socialized: girls, for example, are often encouraged to be in relationships rather than take part in activities.