Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Bullies and Babies
There's an interesting article in the NY Times today about a program that tries to increase empathy by bringing babies to the classroom. And it even increased empathy in the teachers!
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My daughters' school uses this program. I recently commented about it over at a Blog about School; here's what I said.
ReplyDelete"I think the only character education kids need at school are empathy-promoting programs and/or anti-bullying programs. ...[A]ll grade 2's at [our] school participate in something called Roots of Empathy, where a baby from the community is brought into the classroom on a monthly basis, along with its mother and some kind of facilitator/leader. The kids are allowed to play and interact with the baby, and they have discussions about the baby's development, and what s/he might be feeling/thinking at different times during the visit or at different points in his/her development. I am not opposed to this program, because the kids seem to love it, and they become very attached to "their" babies. (You can read about the program here (http://www.rootsofempathy.org/)"
From PsychMom:
ReplyDeleteWhen I brought home my 13 month old from China in 2002, I got such a kick out of watching people interact with my daughter. She had a serious case of CUTE, and could bring a smile to old grumpy men and spikey haired 20 somethings in equal measure. I could never see my daughter's face because I was pushing the stroller but the funniest incident was when a scowling teenager approached us on the sidewalk one day. His eyes shifted to the side and down towards her as he passed us and under his breath I distinctly heard "...cute.." and a half smile came to his face. She loved teenage boys as a baby and so she would turn around in her stroller and watch them walk away, smiling and waving at them. Boys on skateboards were even more fascinating.