Roots of Empathy
Encyclopedia
Roots of Empathy is an evidence-based classroom program that has shown dramatic effect in reducing levels of aggression among schoolchildren by raising social/emotional competence
and increasing empathy
. The program reaches elementary schoolchildren from Kindergarten to Grade 8. In Canada, the program is delivered in English and French and reaches rural
, urban, and remote communities
including Aboriginal communities. Roots of Empathy is also delivered in New Zealand, the United States and the Isle of Man
.
, child advocate and parenting expert, started the program with only 150 kids in Toronto, Canada. Her goal was to help create a society where people were kind to one another and thought it would be best to start with children who are just developing their social skills
. Since 1996, the Roots of Empathy program has surpassed many milestones and affected over 325,000 children directly and countless children indirectly.
“…to build caring, peaceful, and civil societies through the development of empathy in children and adults.”
The Roots of Empathy program has also had an unforeseen affect on bullying. Children who have participated in the program are less likely to be bullies because they understand emotion better than other children. Thus, while the Roots of Empathy program was not originally intended to be an anti-bullying program it has had the aforementioned ripple effect. As Mary Gordon herself said, “I was just looking at how do we build (a) more peaceful and civil society through our children," she said. "The fact that the program dramatically reduces bullying, I have to say, just was a wonderful outcome that I hadn't planned on,” confirming the progress that the program has made against bullying.
and interaction with their classmates and a “teacher.” The “teacher” is an infant, ranging from two months to four months at the beginning of the school year. The infant visits a classroom of elementary school children accompanied by a Roots of Empathy facilitator and the infant’s mother. Through the course of the school year, the children are able to witness the baby grow and change. Further, the students are able to observe several different emotions conveyed by the baby that they might not recognize as easily in children their own age. For example, the baby may start crying and the facilitator will ask the children for a reason as to why the baby is crying. From this observation, the students will understand what type of different actions upset the baby and may then relate these actions to future situations when they see that someone else is upset. In short, it develops their skills to recognize and investigate emotions; it makes them more aware of others around them and their emotions. Another tactic that helps the children learn is that they watch the loving relationship between the parent and the baby (said to be the “ideal model of empathy”). The students witness how the parent meets the baby’s needs.
These visits take place an average of nine times a year per classroom. In addition to the parent-infant visits, the facilitator will stop by the classroom before or after each visit to reinforce the newly observed concepts. In the 2009–2010 school year, there were 1,867 classrooms participating in the program.
involves allowing the students to watch the infant and draw conclusions on the baby’s emotions. The students are guided through the exercise by the facilitator asking a variety of questions regarding reasons why the baby may be reacting the way it is. These exercises are believed to help students better understand one another and in turn cause them to be kinder to one another.
concept is a small section that leads into the section of the development of an infant. In general, this simply helps the children understand that for brains to develop, they need to be cared for with attention and love.
, students see what type of temperament their classroom baby has. The facilitator emphasizes that each baby is different and unique. This is then related to how each student is also unique; hence, each student is taught to respect and understand one another’s differences.
is meant to show students the most long-lasting bond that exists; that of a parent and a child. The children are able to watch the development of the relationship between the parent and the baby throughout the year during the nine visits. This idea demonstrates the importance of loving relationships.
is taught in the classroom by encouraging students to ask questions and to listen to one another. This teaches them that everyone’s opinion is important and to make sure one always voices his/her opinion in an appropriate manner.
, Shaken Baby Syndrome
and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
as well as first- and second-hand smoke. These dangers are emphasized when children learn about how fragile and important infant development is.
to Alberta
and New Brunswick
. As a result of the expansion, the program was translated in to French to correspond to Canada’s French provinces. Currently, six out of the ten Canadian provinces participate in the Roots of Empathy program. The program was so successful in Canada it spread to the United States in Seattle, Washington
, and to the country of New Zealand in 2007. It continued to spread to Northern Ireland, Ireland, and Scotland. Germany is also currently working on launching the program.
passed a resolution to endorse the Roots of Empathy program. This resolution further helped the program expand to reach Aboriginal tribes in Canada as well as other indigenous people
around the world.
Recently, CNN
also shined a spotlight on the Roots of Empathy program by featuring on their morning show, American Morning
, and then headlining it with an article on its website.
in person on two separate occasions. She is also recognized as a best author for her book Roots of Empathy: Changing the World Child by Child, which made a Top 100 books list and has been published in both the United States and South Korea.
Emotional competence
Emotional competence refers to one's ability to express or release one's inner feelings . It implies an ease around others and determines one's ability to effectively and successfully lead and express...
and increasing empathy
Empathy
Empathy is the capacity to recognize and, to some extent, share feelings that are being experienced by another sapient or semi-sapient being. Someone may need to have a certain amount of empathy before they are able to feel compassion. The English word was coined in 1909 by E.B...
. The program reaches elementary schoolchildren from Kindergarten to Grade 8. In Canada, the program is delivered in English and French and reaches rural
Rural Canada
Rural Canada has many faces and many dimensions but the common element of most conceptualizations of "rural" is the spatial dimension. Rural is primarily low population density, small population size, and distance from high population density and big size...
, urban, and remote communities
Provinces and territories of Canada
The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...
including Aboriginal communities. Roots of Empathy is also delivered in New Zealand, the United States and the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
.
Origins
The Roots of Empathy began in 1996 when Mary GordonMary Gordon (child advocate)
Mary Gordon, C.M., B.A., is a Canadian educator, social entrepreneur, child advocate and parenting expert. She is the founder and president of both Roots of Empathy and Seeds of Empathy, non-profit evidence-based programs dedicated to promoting emotional literacy and empathy among...
, child advocate and parenting expert, started the program with only 150 kids in Toronto, Canada. Her goal was to help create a society where people were kind to one another and thought it would be best to start with children who are just developing their social skills
Social skills
A social skill is any skill facilitating interaction and communication with others. Social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning such skills is called socialization...
. Since 1996, the Roots of Empathy program has surpassed many milestones and affected over 325,000 children directly and countless children indirectly.
Mission and Goals
The mission of the website according to its website:“…to build caring, peaceful, and civil societies through the development of empathy in children and adults.”
The Roots of Empathy program has also had an unforeseen affect on bullying. Children who have participated in the program are less likely to be bullies because they understand emotion better than other children. Thus, while the Roots of Empathy program was not originally intended to be an anti-bullying program it has had the aforementioned ripple effect. As Mary Gordon herself said, “I was just looking at how do we build (a) more peaceful and civil society through our children," she said. "The fact that the program dramatically reduces bullying, I have to say, just was a wonderful outcome that I hadn't planned on,” confirming the progress that the program has made against bullying.
Method
The idea of Roots of Empathy is very basic. Children will learn based on observationObservational learning
Observational learning is a type of learning that occurs as a function of observing, retaining and replicating novel behavior executed by others...
and interaction with their classmates and a “teacher.” The “teacher” is an infant, ranging from two months to four months at the beginning of the school year. The infant visits a classroom of elementary school children accompanied by a Roots of Empathy facilitator and the infant’s mother. Through the course of the school year, the children are able to witness the baby grow and change. Further, the students are able to observe several different emotions conveyed by the baby that they might not recognize as easily in children their own age. For example, the baby may start crying and the facilitator will ask the children for a reason as to why the baby is crying. From this observation, the students will understand what type of different actions upset the baby and may then relate these actions to future situations when they see that someone else is upset. In short, it develops their skills to recognize and investigate emotions; it makes them more aware of others around them and their emotions. Another tactic that helps the children learn is that they watch the loving relationship between the parent and the baby (said to be the “ideal model of empathy”). The students witness how the parent meets the baby’s needs.
These visits take place an average of nine times a year per classroom. In addition to the parent-infant visits, the facilitator will stop by the classroom before or after each visit to reinforce the newly observed concepts. In the 2009–2010 school year, there were 1,867 classrooms participating in the program.
Emotional Literacy
The idea of emotional literacyEmotional Literacy
The term emotional literacy has often been used in parallel to, and sometimes interchangeably with, the term "emotional intelligence". However, there are important differences between the two....
involves allowing the students to watch the infant and draw conclusions on the baby’s emotions. The students are guided through the exercise by the facilitator asking a variety of questions regarding reasons why the baby may be reacting the way it is. These exercises are believed to help students better understand one another and in turn cause them to be kinder to one another.
Perspective-Taking
The perspective-taking section teaches students to listen to one another’s opinions. This leads to students being more accepting of one another because they are able to better understand someone by listening to the person’s opinion.Neuroscience
The neuroscienceNeuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
concept is a small section that leads into the section of the development of an infant. In general, this simply helps the children understand that for brains to develop, they need to be cared for with attention and love.
Temperament
When learning about temperamentTemperament
In psychology, temperament refers to those aspects of an individual's personality, such as introversion or extroversion, that are often regarded as innate rather than learned...
, students see what type of temperament their classroom baby has. The facilitator emphasizes that each baby is different and unique. This is then related to how each student is also unique; hence, each student is taught to respect and understand one another’s differences.
Attachment
The concept of attachmentAttachment in children
Newborn humans infants cannot survive without a caregiver to provide food and protection, and will not thrive without other types of support as well. While infants have relatively few inborn behaviors—such as crying, rooting, and sucking—they also come with many behavioral systems ready to be...
is meant to show students the most long-lasting bond that exists; that of a parent and a child. The children are able to watch the development of the relationship between the parent and the baby throughout the year during the nine visits. This idea demonstrates the importance of loving relationships.
Inclusion
Along with temperament, the concept of inclusion aids students in appreciating one another’s uniqueness, beliefs, opinions and contributions. This idea is taught through open discussion among the students. The students are further shown the unfairness of exclusion. They become sympathetic and begin to advocate for one another, thus reducing bullying.Violence Prevention
Violence prevention is taught hand in hand with a few of the other aforementioned topics. By teaching students to be kind to each other and to stand up for one another, violence will be reduced. Therefore, with the help of the facilitator, students learn about how to stop violence through discussions.Participatory Democracy
Participatory democracyParticipatory democracy
Participatory Democracy, also known as Deliberative Democracy, Direct Democracy and Real Democracy , is a process where political decisions are made directly by regular people...
is taught in the classroom by encouraging students to ask questions and to listen to one another. This teaches them that everyone’s opinion is important and to make sure one always voices his/her opinion in an appropriate manner.
Teen Pregnancy Prevention
Life skills such as teen pregnancy prevention are taught by demonstrating the needs an infant requires. One exercise involves students recording their sleep habits for a week and then coming back to class and comparing it with the parent’s sleeping pattern. The children then discuss these demands in class.Infant Safety and Development
Infant safety and development is taught to help students understand how fragile babies are and how much care must be taken around them. They are made aware of SIDSSudden infant death syndrome
Sudden infant death syndrome is marked by the sudden death of an infant that is unexpected by medical history, and remains unexplained after a thorough forensic autopsy and a detailed death scene investigation. An infant is at the highest risk for SIDS during sleep, which is why it is sometimes...
, Shaken Baby Syndrome
Shaken baby syndrome
Shaken baby syndrome is a triad of medical symptoms: subdural hematoma, retinal hemorrhage, and brain swelling from which doctors, consistent with current medical understanding, infer child abuse caused by intentional shaking...
and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders describes a continuum of permanent birth defects caused by maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy, which includes, but is not limited to fetal alcohol syndrome...
as well as first- and second-hand smoke. These dangers are emphasized when children learn about how fragile and important infant development is.
Research and Evaluation
The Roots of Empathy program effectiveness has been evaluated nine different times by independent reviewers. Overall, the results were positive. The results showed that students who participated in the demonstrated several qualities including an increase in social knowledge, a decrease in aggression, an increase in sharing/inclusive/helping behavior, and an increase in emotional perception. These effects appeared to be lasting. As previously mentioned, there had also been a decrease in bullying among the students who have participated in the program.Growth
As a result of the positive evaluations, the Roots of Empathy program began to gain both momentum and recognition throughout Canada. The program began to spread from the Canadian province of OntarioOntario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
to Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
and New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...
. As a result of the expansion, the program was translated in to French to correspond to Canada’s French provinces. Currently, six out of the ten Canadian provinces participate in the Roots of Empathy program. The program was so successful in Canada it spread to the United States in Seattle, Washington
Seattle, Washington
Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, and to the country of New Zealand in 2007. It continued to spread to Northern Ireland, Ireland, and Scotland. Germany is also currently working on launching the program.
Recognition
In 2008, the Canadian Assembly of First NationsAssembly of First Nations
The Assembly of First Nations , formerly known as the National Indian Brotherhood, is a body of First Nations leaders in Canada...
passed a resolution to endorse the Roots of Empathy program. This resolution further helped the program expand to reach Aboriginal tribes in Canada as well as other indigenous people
Indigenous peoples
Indigenous peoples are ethnic groups that are defined as indigenous according to one of the various definitions of the term, there is no universally accepted definition but most of which carry connotations of being the "original inhabitants" of a territory....
around the world.
Recently, CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
also shined a spotlight on the Roots of Empathy program by featuring on their morning show, American Morning
American Morning
American Morning is the morning television show on CNN. It premiered in 2001.-About the show:American Morning is hosted by Ashleigh Banfield, Zoraida Sambolin & Soledad O'Brien. Others who appear regularly are Rob Marciano with the weather, Sunny Hostin on legal news, and CNN senior medical...
, and then headlining it with an article on its website.
About the Founder
Mary Gordon is the President and Founder of Roots of Empathy. She has received several recognitions including being appointed a Canadian Ashoka Fellow and conversed with the Dalai LamaDalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
in person on two separate occasions. She is also recognized as a best author for her book Roots of Empathy: Changing the World Child by Child, which made a Top 100 books list and has been published in both the United States and South Korea.
Publications
Books- Roots of Empathy: Changing the World Child by Child Gordon, Mary. Toronto: Thomas Allen, 2005.
- On The Globe and MailThe Globe and MailThe Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...
's Top 100 Books of 2006 in the category "Ideas"
- On The Globe and Mail
- Family Literacy in Canada: Profile of Effective Practices, Edited by Adele Thomas. Chapter: "Parenting and Family Literacy Centres of the Toronto District School Board" by Mary Gordon, editions Soleil publishing inc., 1998.
- Child Honoring: How to Turn This World Around, Edited by Raffi Cavoukian, Sharna Olfman. Chapter: "The Power of Empathy" by Mary Gordon, Homeland Press, 2006.
International Advisory Board
- Gwynne DyerGwynne DyerGwynne Dyer, OC is a London-based independent Canadian journalist, syndicated columnist and military historian.Dyer was born in St. John's, Newfoundland and joined the Royal Canadian Naval Reserve at the age of sixteen...
- Dr. Fraser MustardJames Fraser MustardJames Fraser Mustard, was a Canadian physician and scientist. Born, raised and educated in Toronto, Ontario, Mustard began his career as a research fellow at the University of Toronto where he studied the effects of blood lipids, their relation to heart disease and how Aspirin could mitigate...
- Dr. Bruce Perry