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Tribe
9th July 2014, 19:37
In thousands of schools around the world, children between the ages of five and 12 take lessons from a newborn baby. The result? Increased emotional intelligence, understanding and empathy towards classmates, and less bullying and aggression

http://i1333.photobucket.com/albums/w639/babyhurricaine/imagejpg1_zps2980d1d1.jpg (http://s1333.photobucket.com/user/babyhurricaine/media/imagejpg1_zps2980d1d1.jpg.html)


It looks like an ordinary year five classroom in the Lucas Vale Primary School in the London borough of Lewisham. Colourful posters and artwork cover the walls and hang from the ceilings. A group of ten and 11-year-olds talk and laugh as they get up from their desks. A woman walks in with a baby in her arms and immediately the chatter dies down. The children gather around a green blanket and burst into a welcome song: “Hello baby Sienna, how are you today?”

I’m witnessing a Roots of Empathy session in action. It’s unusual education on all levels. The subject matter isn’t maths or literacy but empathy, and it’s not a teacher but an infant who guides us. Instructor Suzanna Fix had warned me ahead of the session: “On the green blanket empathy is caught, not taught. The baby’s mood is infectious. Her feelings are recognised and shared by all the pupils, and the boys are just as involved as the girls.”

In the classroom, her words ring true. Some of the boys seem embarrassed to sing and try hard to look disinterested. They succeed only briefly. Sienna’s mother, Lori Knight, makes her way around the circle and holds up her baby in front of each pupil. Sienna smiles and every child in the room smiles back at her.

Since the launch of the programme in Canada in 1996, its mission has been “to build caring, peaceful and civil societies through the development of empathy in children and adults.”

When founder and educator Mary Gordon first brought a baby into a classroom, she was convinced it would help solve what she saw as one of the world’s big problems: the lack of human empathy. Guiding young learners through a journey of personal discovery and a greater understanding of their classmates’ feelings could, she believed, have a lasting effect. Ultimately, she hoped it would create a generation of responsible citizens, responsive parents and emphatic leaders.

Eighteen years on, some of those theories and effects have been confirmed through research. Over half a million school children have followed Roots of Empathy and its little sister programme Seeds of Empathy for toddlers. The programme has spread from North America to New Zealand, the Isle of Man and Ireland, with translated versions being rolled out in Germany and the Spanish speaking world.



Read more here ...http://positivenews.org.uk/2014/community/education/15722/crying-empathy/

ronin
9th July 2014, 22:04
i remember a school where you where you where told and not to question.
you had no free thought.this not only happened in school but at home.

the way i see it now it is no one,s fault but just the conditioning where we are at at that time.

the difference is now that we are all beginning to respect each others opinions no matter what the age or the education.