Educating Empathy

In 2008, President Obama described the state of the world: “I’m talking about a moral deficit. I’m talking about an empathy deficit. I’m talking about an inability to recognize ourselves in one another; to understand that we are our brother’s keeper; we are our sister’s keeper; that, in the words of Dr. King, we are all tied together in a single garment of destiny.”

The present looks much worse.

Local educator Paul Bodin has spoken eloquently about an empathy core curriculum and how we can help foster not only an empathic national culture but a planetary one as well. As preschool educators, my wife and I have fostered an empathy curriculum for our in home preschool since 1990.

The early years enable educators to give children a solid foundation of seeing things from another point view, developing problem solving skills along with independent thinking, and most importantly nurturing a “kind heart.”

Our emerging global culture hungers for creative thinkers who are inspired by compassion and love for all peoples. Further progress for our planet will not come from dazzling technologies or threatening, bullying behaviors. The true superheroes of the present and the future are and will be the empathic servers of humanity.

Christopher & Deb Michaels

Eugene