Empathy in Action: How Teachers Prepare Future Citizens

How do children learn to care enough about others that they reap the personal rewards associated with giving? When young people develop empathy, they not only thrive in school and life, but they also impact their communities in positive, often extraordinary ways.

Individual and societal success depends on raising and educating children who care about others. But we have misled today's children to believe that success is achieved through test scores, material wealth, and personal gain. In turn, there has been a measurable shift toward self-centeredness at a time when society depends more, not less, on people who give of themselves.

Developed through emotional attachment with other human beings, empathy is our ability to recognize, feel, and respond to the needs and suffering of other people. While the digital age has given children more ways than ever before to connect with others, many researchers are concerned with how social networking and decreased face-to-face relationships may have contributed to a 48 percent drop in empathetic concern for others over the past few decades. Studies have linked low empathy to increased bullying, narcissism, rigid belief systems, and civic apathy. As educators, we have a moral imperative to rethink how we teach kids to care in a more hurried, impersonal, data-driven world.

The Foundation of Caring and Engaged Citizenship

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