Parenting: Ashoka’s Start Empathy Program

 

Over the past few years, we have heard more and more about the damage and even life-threatening effects that bullying has had on our youth.  I think most of us experienced some form of bullying as a kid – but the difference today is the ability for bullying to reach much farther and in some situations more intensely via the Internet.  That is why programs like the Ashoka’s Start Empathy initiative are so important to help parents and educators teach children the importance of empathy.  I had a chance to speak to the organization about the program and what parents can do to help teach empathy. 

Tell us about Start Empathy and what its goals are?

 Ashoka’s Start Empathy initiative is a collaboration among parents, educators, social entrepreneurs and others to make empathy as much a priority in education as math and reading.

 Joined by a cohort of social entrepreneurs (Ashoka Fellows), partners like the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a growing network of “Changemaker Schools” that have made empathy both a core input and outcome of the learning environment, the Start Empathy team has set out to accomplish two major goals. First, to help shift the conversation about our educational priorities to include empathy and related skills, and second, to identify and distill some of the most effective strategies for cultivating empathy and package them for parents and educators.

 Why Empathy Specifically?

Empathy not only helps us understand and treat one another better: it’s a key currency in a world defined by connectivity and change. Gone are the days in which we worked and lived only alongside those who looked the same, spoke the same, and thought the same. How well we do – whether in the classroom or the boardroom – will depend on how well we forge and navigate relationships.

If we can empathize then we can communicate, collaborate, and lead. We can solve problems – for ourselves and for each other. No matter who we are or what we do.

 Here are a few things parents and educators can do to teach empathy.

        

Parents Can:

 

• Teach your children how to read body language and tone of voice in other people. Demonstrate how these external signals provide early clues as to how people are feeling internally.

 

• Expose your children to different cultures and celebrate diversity by listening to music, cooking food or attending art exhibits of other cultures.

 

Educators can:

• Assign students to interview adults about what it was like to live through challenging times such as the Depression, World War II, Jim Crow South, 9/11/2001. For inspiration, read about the Prospect Sierra School’s WWII project.

 

• Involve students in community service projects. Read how pre-school and kindergarten students at Georgetown Day School learn about poverty and hunger by making sandwiches for Martha’s Table.

 

• Create a school culture of community and democracy in which students, teachers and parents all have a real say in the school’s mission, vision and values. See how the Mission Hill School fosters a democratic education.

 

Any news you want to share with dandelion moms?

 

Over the last year, we’ve been working on making the case for why empathy matters, and simultaneously unearthing best practices for how to actually cultivate empathy in others. Now we’re working on a toolkit for educators that they can use in the classroom each day and each week. It’s less about asking teachers to do something new (we know how overburdened they already are!) and more about giving them something to integrate into their existing school days. For example, how might storytelling time, or responding to student conflict or bullying, be an opportunity for building kids’ empathy and perspective taking muscles?

 

If you’re interested in what we’re doing – or if you have comments or questions or anything to share – please visit our website and let us know! www.startempathy.org

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