This is a sweet but (I think) wrongheaded thought. Children can learn, one-on-one, that behavior that *seems* empathetic pleases the parent-figure they're wired to want to please. Few if any children can learn much about empathy as adults know it, or spirituality as adults know it, or romantic love as adults know it, because they haven't developed the physical mechanisms by which adults process these things. And my concern with trying to teach empathy in schools is that, face it, children crowded in among strangers are *not* highly motivated to please either teachers or classmates before puberty.
On Jul 8, 2016 Priscilla King wrote:
This is a sweet but (I think) wrongheaded thought. Children can learn, one-on-one, that behavior that *seems* empathetic pleases the parent-figure they're wired to want to please. Few if any children can learn much about empathy as adults know it, or spirituality as adults know it, or romantic love as adults know it, because they haven't developed the physical mechanisms by which adults process these things. And my concern with trying to teach empathy in schools is that, face it, children crowded in among strangers are *not* highly motivated to please either teachers or classmates before puberty.