So you’re thinking of including ‘empathy’ into your curriculum. You’ve decided that you want your children to think about others, care for the needy or put themselves in another’s shoes.
It is no easy task.
To build empathy in our children and in society as a whole, we need to include a careful cocktails of experiences and techniques into our child’s educational journey.
Here they are:
• Awareness – give the children a true understanding of who they are, where they fit and how they compare.
• Understanding – Allow children to meet with people from all walks of life, age, faith, race and colour to build up a picture of humanity as a whole.
• Communication – give them several tools to express their feelings and their fears.
• Consideration – before making any decisions, put structures in place that will allow our children to consider how it may affect others.
• Respect – everyone deserves to be respected, including our children. Equality is key.
• Know and be known – give your child a voice, a direction and purpose and a role model that fits their intentions.
• See and be seen – give them a platform upon which they can open their wings, display their feathers and sing.
• Clarity – have a common goal. Take the journey too. Be invested.
#teachers #montessori #education #parents
One Response
Another interesting and insightul post.
Thanks Gavin. So in a sense compassion can’t be taught but it can potentially be nurtured and role modelled. So true compassion emerges out of the children’s knowledge of who they are. It is about acceptance of difference and a realisation of our common humanity, i.e the common needs we have as humans for love, creative expression, contributing to our families/communities etc.