 With
violence, anti-social behaviour, bullying and aggression among
young children escalating at a frightening rate, it is clear
that we need to develop a new understanding of childhood.
As a society, we have accomplished many things,
but we have overlooked one vital aspect of our humanity that
can literally change our lives - the innate empathy and wisdom
of babies.
Mary Gordon is an educator who has worked
for more than two decades with children from all kinds of
backgrounds. She has discovered that a solution to bullying
and other anti-social behaviour lies within each child's natural
sense of caring and compassion. In essence, she has discovered
the power of empathy.
Through Roots of Empathy, her highly successful
organization, Mary Gordon creates a rich, rewarding classroom
experience that fosters empathy within children. By bringing
babies and students together in a symbiotic environment, the
program has reduced aggression, and increased tolerance and
emotional understanding in children.
 Mary
Gordon describes herself as a product of her space. As a native
of Newfoundland, she is deeply rooted in her childhood experiences.
It was in her family's kitchen where she was taught the importance
of citizenship, contribution and, most importantly, how to
learn.
In 1981, she founded Canada’s first
and largest school-based parenting and family literacy program.
And, in 1996, she founded Roots of Empathy – a not-for-profit,
evidence-based classroom program that has dramatically reduced
levels of aggression and violence among schoolchildren, while
increasing empathy, and raising social and emotional competence.
Mary Gordon is a well-recognized author,
educator and parenting expert. As well, her work in child
advocacy has made her a member of the Order of Canada and
an award-winning social entrepreneur. Learn more about Mary
and her inspiration for Roots of Empathy here.
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About
Roots of Empathy
Mary Gordon founded Roots of Empathy with
support from Maytree. The idea was to develop
a program that challenged the status quo and introduced a
new mindset for people to look at education, relationships
and the way we operate in the world.
While Mary admits that she knew more about
learning than teaching, her experience with parenting and
family literacy programs helped her understand the power of
loving relationships and what it really means to sacrifice
for your child.
Over the long term, Roots of Empathy seeks to build the next
generation's capacity for caring and compassionate citizenship
and parenting. Over the short term, it focuses on raising
levels of empathy to foster more respectful and caring relationships,
and reduce levels of bullying and aggression.
Mary believes that children can change the
world. For this reason, she has made empathy her primary focus
because of its ability to shape a child's attitude.
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The secret
ingredient
According to Mary, empathy is the new ingredient
in a movement for change. This often overlooked component
is as basic as caring about others. When we develop empathy,
we develop emotional literacy. This allows us to conceive
the world as a completely different place.
Empathy is not something that is taught,
it is something that is caught. We must be emotionally "in
the soup" of empathic behaviour. In other words, we cannot
teach empathy - it is fostered through direct experience and
observation. We must create the emotional underpinning in
order for a child to become empathic.
In Mary's opinion, this sort of emotional
learning is a brand new way of thinking in society and about
education. Most organizations agree that there are ethical
components to operating, but Mary advocates that agencies,
organizations and people can operate in a more effective and
respectful way by "thinking of others" in everything
they do.
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The role of
children
According to Mary Gordon, our traditional
view of children does not fit today's landscape of childhood.
What has remained the same is the essence of the child - they
are every bit as emotionally dependent and vulnerable as they
have always been.
Instead of seeing a child as a person of
full impact, we tend to see children as social capital. Education
plays an important role in this understanding. Roots of Empathy
has always encouraged learning from an emotional level to
foster development and change behaviour. But, how do we get
education to change the way in which we view the child, and
social and emotional learning?
Change is rooted in dialogue. By starting
a conversation about children and education, we can broaden
our understanding of their roles as contributors to society.
If we engage children in meaningful conversation
and pay them respect by listening to questions and concerns,
they will, in turn, feel empowered to lead and contribute
to a better society.
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Next
steps
Seeds of Empathy is an exciting new program
that is being piloted in British Columbia. By taking ingredients
from Roots of Empathy, Seeds of Empathy focuses on three to
five year old children - a stage of childhood that our society
often overlooks.
Unlike Roots of Empathy, this pilot program
works directly with early childhood educators. In addition
to regular visits to parents and infants, curriculums are
developed around a number of books in order to focus on a
child's emotional literacy through traditional literacy. Some
of the areas Seeds of Empathy seeks to measure are a child's
attitude to early reading, as well as their social and emotional
competencies.
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We asked Mary Gordon if there are any questions
she has about movements that she would like us to think about.
Her response was that she often finds herself asking complex
questions such as, "Where is compassion hiding?"
and "How do you grow kindness?"
Mary believes that we need to acknowledge
where the levers for change are. She considers family and
education to be the most powerful leaders in the world, yet
neither of these groups tend to acknowledge this because they
often feel they are powerless.
In recognizing the need to find levers for
change, Mary asks:
- How do we share power in the world?
- How do we empower those who do not realize they have
power?
- How do we let others see that they have the capacity
to turn the world around?
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Roots
of Empathy - Roots of Empathy is an evidence-based
classroom program that has shown dramatic effect in reducing
levels of aggression and violence among schoolchildren, while
raising social emotional competence and increasing empathy.
Research
and the Effectiveness of Roots of Empathy - Access
the full research reports on the effectiveness of the Roots
of Empathy program from the research team at the University
of British Columbia.
Children
& Community - Tamarack's Community Life section
looks at the importance of community to children and offers
a variety of valuable resources for children, teachers and
communities.
50
Ways Parents Can Help Schools - This resource
from North Central Regional Educational Laboratory offers
helpful ways for parents to get involved in the development
of their children at school.
21
Strategies to Help Your Child Develop Good Character
- Since children learn by example, this article is a useful
reminder for parents to model good behaviour and positive
interactions within our families and communities.
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