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All Front Page Sections, Empathy and: Animals, Art, Compassion, Education, Empaths, Health Care, Learning, Justice, Teaching, Work, Self-empathy, Self-compassion, etc Please Click 'Follow' to receive updates. It also helps us rise in the rankings and gives us more exposure on Scoop.it. Join the Free Online Empathy Curriculum Project http://bit.ly/kwZ1Go Thanks so much. Edwin Rutsch, Editor http://CultureOfEmpathy.com
Think back to fourth grade. What were you doing in school? Were you practicing fractions? Learning photosynthesis? Maybe you were studying the British colonization of the New World?
Well, if we fast
Empathy promotes meaningful relationships, better communication, and problem-solving skills. It also promotes greater understanding between people of different backgrounds, and it is an essential building block for a secure, prosperous community. This course examines recent social research into empathy and other “prosocial” behaviors, as well as recommended strategies and practices for guiding young children through the early phases of empathy’s long developmental process. Objectives of this course include understanding the difference between empathy and sympathy, defining the “warm glow effect,” and identifying appropriate strategies for promoting and reinforcing altruistic behavior in the early childhood environment. "This course shows that empathy isn’t just about being nice or thoughtful. Empathy is a vital life skill and a major factor in personal relationships and communication," says Maria C. Taylor, President and CEO of CCEI. "Our empathy and prosocial behaviors training course shows early childhood professionals why this topic is as important for children as it is for adults.”
Erika MacLeod (@3rikamac) from Ashoka’s Start Empathy initiative had the opportunity to interview Bob Sornson, the founder of the Early Learning Foundation.
Q: Please share some of the work you have been involved with recently.
A: My work at The Early Learning Foundation focuses on early learning success. We work with schools, agencies and parent organizations to inform people about the skills and habits which must be well-established in the early years of life. By age five, for example, many aspects of personality are well established; by the end of third grade we can predict learning outcomes for most kids for the rest of their lives! In any typical low-income community in the U.S., just 17 percent of students are proficient readers by the beginning of 4th grade, which data suggests means they’re unlikely to ever become successful readers or students. It’s a national tragedy and a crime to let so many poor kids become unsuccessful learners in the information age. Culture of Empathy Builder page: Bob Sornson http://j.mp/13puxuB
At Prospect Sierra, a leading Ashoka Changemaker School, service-learning is an important part of the curriculum. From the time students enter the school in kindergarten through their graduation in 8th grade, they are participating in meaningful projects that allow them to practice empathy, teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving skills. Third grade teacher Elissa Fisher shares with us her experience of her students' service project at the Center for Early Intervention on Deafness (CEID).
"Over the last several months, those of us at Start Empathy – along with a core group of Ashoka Fellows, leading educators and partners – have worked to identify, distill, and categorize dozens of promising empathy building insights and activities. In short, we’ve been asking people: “What works?”
What we’ve received ranges from simple tips to group problem solving exercises to teacher training guides, and they all help advance our central goal: unleashing empathy as both an input and output of our education system.
Now we’ve compiled them into our “here’s stuff that works” guide, which we’re calling the Empathy Road Map. It’s by no means a comprehensive picture but rather a strong first step. It’s meant to be a living document – one that our community helps us enhance and refine over time." By Start Empathy
You may think it's something we just know, but kids learn compassion and if you want to raise a kind, caring person, here are a few tips: Show Compassion to Your ChildExplore FeelingsRead Books on Bullying ...
Teaching Empathy When teaching your children about the importance of apologies, the primary objective should be to teach empathy, too, says Fran Walfish, Beverly Hills-based psychotherapist and author of “The Self-Aware Parent: Resolving Conflict and Building a Better Bond With Your Child.” “Most kids will apologize by default just to get you off their backs,” says Walfish. “Rather, you want to teach your children accountability, responsibility and a genuine sense of their own misstep.”
Emotional contagion can get in the way of real empathy. The simplest response associated with empathy is emotional contagion – literally catching an emotion from someone else. But the relationship between emotional contagion and empathy is not always positive. It may be that mirror neurons cause us to mimic another’s facial expression, posture and even movement - and that leads to the experience of the same emotion. As they say, if you keep smiling long enough you will feel happier. Whenever two or more people are displaying emotion it is likely that some degree of emotional transfer is going on and in situations producing strong emotions the contagion can be intense.
by Gillian Ragsdale, Ph.D.
Connect more deeply by listening more responsively, negotiate more effectively. Suggestions, examples, exercises, stories, skills, links to articles, books. SUMMARY (repeated from Introduction) Listen first and acknowledge what you hear, even if you don’t agree with it, before expressing your experience or point of view . In order to get more of your conversation partner’s attention in tense situations, pay attention first: listen and give a brief restatement of what you have heard (especially feelings) before you express your own needs or position. The kind of listening recommended here separates acknowledgingfrom approving or agreeing . Acknowledging another person’s thoughts and feelings does not have to mean that you approve of or agree with that person’s actions or way of experiencing, or that you will do whatever someone asks.
by Dennis Rivers,
Few emotions in life are more difficult to teach a child than empathy. It is a confusing, complicated and mature emotion that even most adults have yet to master. However, teaching a child empathy can have lasting effects on her as she grows up. Empathy is a valuable tool to possess and can help a child cooperate with others in school and in life. It can help her grow to be a compassionate and kind person. Show empathy to your child and others. This is always the first step you should take when teaching your child anything. She cannot learn empathy unless someone first works to understand her point of view. By Marcia Hall
These smart ideas for encouraging children to be more empathetic are from Start Empathy, a new education initiative created by the nonprofit Ashoka. The goal is to get kids and adults thinking about the topic—key for raising kids who understand others’ feelings and perspectives, and key for raising kids who care. These seven questions will help get even the most me-centric kid (and what kid isn’t?!) thinking about other people. How does that make you feel?... Do you know at times I’ve also felt scared?... How would that make your [brother/sister/friend] feel?... What do you think [a particular character] felt?... Why do you thinkhe/she made those choices?... What emotion is that?... If you had superpowers, how would you use them to help... What were you like when you were nine years old?... by Ellen Seidman
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Studies show that sustained and well-integrated social and emotional learning (SEL) programs can help schools engage their students and improve achievement. Explore the classroom practices that make up the best and most effective SEL programs. Learn more at Edutopia:
Bully-Proof your Preschooler – Part 2: EMPATHY
In our last article, Bully-Proof Your Preschooler, we featured tips and signs for helping young children deal with aggressors. Today we’ll take a look at empathy and its role in prevention.
Why empathy matters
Empathy is the ability to understand and identify with another person’s feelings. It includes regulating one’s own emotions and is central to success in social relationships. Children who are empathic are less likely to use aggression.
Empathy has to be taught
Although there is evidence that the human brain may be pre-wired for empathy, just ask a group of toddlers to share a toy and you’ll see plenty of evidence that empathy doesn’t come naturally! It has to be taught. That’s why you play a crucial role in the development of empathy skills – starting in infancy. by Linda
Empathy has been in the news a lot recently. It has been highlighted as an antidote to school bullying and gun and gender violence, and it has become popular in the business community as a part of user-centered design. More and more, empathy is being recognized as a skill that people need to develop to better shape how society will function in the future..... When Facebook first launched, its policy was to allow users to report problems, bullying or abuse to Facebook staff. With over one billion users, and an exponentially growing number of interactions, Facebook took a closer look at the problems people were reporting and found they were not so much violations of policies, but rather miscommunications and misunderstandings between members. Facebook responded by investing in teaching its community to be more empathetic, instead of leaving everyone to fend for themselves. How? By coding empathy into its social network, changing the way users interacted online.
by Darlene M. Damm
This is part seven of the nine-part series from the Project Happiness curriculum. We are looking at important factors that influence the happiness and social and emotional learning of elementary school. How is Empathy Being Developed in Schools? There are many approaches to teaching empathy. Here are ten interesting ways that aspects of empathy are being introduced:... Start with Teachers: At a recentEduCon Conference, an important issue came up. Teacher burnout increases when teachers are expected to be supportive but receive no emotional support at all. One teacher summarized it well: "How can I have empathy for my students when no one will have empathy for me?" The solution one school adopted was to have regular staff meetings in which everyone sat in a circle and shared how things were going. Teachers felt closer to one another in creating a more supportive environment where others cared about how everyone was feeling. Infants as Educators:... Validation and Trust:... Power of Teamwork:... Grading on Character:... Practice Emotional Literacy:... Befriending the "Other":... Students as "Changemakers":... Service-Learning:... Encourage Empathy at Home:...
In the spirit of Mark Twain who famously said he never let his schooling interfere with his education, Bill Drayton grew up enthusiastic at school, but not so much about school. He enjoyed a few subjects, but he admits, his energies were in things like, starting a series of newspapers or being an active member of the NAACP. Now, Drayton, who is credited with having coined the phrase “social entrepreneur,” hopes to create a network of global changemakers (empowered with skills embracing empathy, teamwork, leadership and problem-solving) with his organization Ashoka: Innovators for the Public to reshape education all together. For more than a decade, Ashoka has partnered with young people with its Youth Venture program, but it’s only in the past year that it began partnering with schools to introduce the concept of empathy into the curriculum. Dozens of schools in the U.S. are already on board and, according to Drayton, “Last week, Scotland said, this is going to be in all of our schools and even though the Irish Ministry is cutting back, they’ve just made a huge commitment.”
Compassion like love has a spectrum and has a number of stages and levels. The general term learned in society about compassion is somehow different from a more expanded version of it. And also it differs from society to society and the modernity of it. In general, compassion is viewed as a deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the desire to alleviate the pain. Here, compassion is a form of emotion, a feeling that is acting and flowing. Roya R. Rad, MA, PsyD
We all want the children we care for to be empathetic but as teachers and families, can we in some way make them be empathetic? This workshop discusses the value of empathy and how to cultivate the conditions to help empathy grow in our homes and classrooms. Please join us for this workshop on April 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the witf Public Media Center at 4801 Lindle Road, Harrisburg, PA 17111. This event is open to teachers and families. It is free for families that do not need teaching certificate/credit hours. The registration fee for teachers is $10.
Bullying in schools and online is a complex issue with many facets and even more potential solutions. But, all things told, there’s really one idea that parents and educators can focus on when talking to kids about how to end it: Empathy. Empathetic, confident kids are not only less likely to bully others, they’re also less likely to stand by and watch as other kids are subjected to bullying. And even if they don’t intervene at the time when the bullying occurs, empathetic children make better allies to others, which can dramatically improve the culture of the schoolyard or the chat room. Emily Bazelon
How to help your little one learn compassion “Providing opportunities for children to learn considerate play are integral to kids learning these behaviors,” says Melody Brooke, family therapist in Richardson, Texas. By modeling considerate behavior and showing your child how to empathize with others, you will be molding his character for the future. BY SHANNON PHILPOTT
Interview about Empathy and Child Development
Bruce Perry co-author BORN FOR LOVE:Why Empathy Is Essential and Endangered"
"One of the most important aspects of being a human being, is being able to be in a relationship. Being able to successfully form and maintain a relationship. And at the heart of that capability is the capacity to put yourself in somebody else's shoes, to see the world how they see it. That capacity is empathy"
Dr. Perry is the Senior Fellow of The ChildTrauma Academy, a not-for-profit organization based in Houston, TX
http://ChildTrauma.org/
As demands on health care providers increase, compassion becomes more difficult to sustain. But a new training holds the promise of helping them meet those challenges. CCARE developed the Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) Through - strengthening of intention and attention, - awareness of body sensations, - cultivation of loving-kindness for self and others, - and offering a vision of shared common humanity, CCT facilitates a transformation of how people relate and respond to their own suffering and to that of others. CCT consists of nine weekly two-hour classes that include lectures, guided compassion cultivation exercises, and group discussions. The class is cumulative so that each session builds on the previous sessions. The goal of the training is to provide a practical framework for developing compassion for one’s self and others. The CCT teacher-training manual suggests that cultivating compassion may lead to improved communication, increased resilience to stress, and enhanced feelings of well‐being.
Georgetown Day School shares a snapshot of service activities that help students become changemakers. In order for students to grow as empathic leaders, capable of working in teams to solve problems, they must have opportunities to learn about social issues, practice empathy, and take constructive action. Service provides a powerful vehicle for learning changemaker skills, and at Georgetown Day School, service is an integral part of the student experience from start to finish.
Just before the holidays I finished the illustrations for a children's book about empathy. Even while the project was in process, I found the book to be a great teaching tool with the boys. Who couldn't use some help in the area of putting yourself in someone else's shoes? "When Emily asks her big sister what the word empathy means, Emily has no idea that knowing the answer will change how she looks at people. But does it really matter to others if Emily notices how theyre feeling? Standing in My Shoes shows kids how easy it is to develop empathy toward those around them.
Empathy is the ability to notice what other people feel. Empathy leads to the social skills and personal relationships which make our lives rich and beautiful, and it is something we can help our children learn. This book teaches young children the value of noticing how other people feel. Were hoping that many parents read it along with their children."
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