Roots of Empathy: Changing the World Child by Child

This is the landmark presentation of the widely acclaimed programme, increasingly adopted worldwide, that fosters empathy in children with the goal of creating a more civil society, one child at a time. Roots of Empathy constitutes a radical new look at what’s important in childhood development. Violence, anti-social behaviour, bullying, and aggression among young children continue to escalate everywhere. But Mary Gordon, an educator who has worked for more than two decades with children from all kinds of backgrounds, has discovered that the solution to bullying and other anti-social behaviour lies within each child’s innate sense of caring and compassion. In Roots of Empathy , Gordon lays out her belief in and program for infusing children with empathy, the ability to understand another person’s point of view and respect their feelings. The Roots of Empathy programme creates a rich, rewarding classroom experience that fosters empathy within every child by bringing babies and children together to create a symbiotic loving environment that reduces aggression in children while increasing tolerance and emotional literacy. An interactive experience for parents, teachers, and children, the Roots of Empathy programme aims to create a more civil society and thereby to change the world, one child at a time. It will speak particularly to the approximately 1.5 million elementary school teachers nationwide.