Why Empathy Education Matters

empathy

noun

UK /ˈem.pə.θi/ US /ˈem.pə.θi/

the ability to share someone else’s feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s situation*

Much of the education system is dog-eat-dog: league tables, comparison matrices, OfSTED grading, setting by ability (or perceived ability based on a strange model of primary testing!). It is designed to pit student against student, teacher against teacher, school against school.

The art of putting yourself in another’s shoes, seeing things from another’s perspective and being moved to help another isn’t prominent in our society, so perhaps it is no wonder that our education system isn’t reflecting it either.

We believe this needs to change and one of the ways is to develop empathy in schools.

Let’s dive into why.

#1: Higher levels of empathy make people more productive in cooperative learning and work environments

We don’t really need to tell you why this matters.

In a team, if people understand what others are going through and consider their perspective, they will appreciate and support. Studies like this prove it.

#2: Children with empathy perform better in comprehension tasks

This might sound obvious but maybe not.

If a young person has developed cultural and social capital (and this is a job for all education establishments to help nurture these), they have an appreciation and awareness of others. This insightful research paper even goes so far as to suggest, empathy develops psychological traits that help with reading and understanding texts.

#3: Comparison is often toxic for young people

We aren’t saying competition and striving for your best isn’t important.

In this article, Dr Elizabeth Scott highlights how it might not just be stressful for young people but adults too, and discusses the social impacts of upward and downward comparison. Empathy can negate the constant comparison and move us to care.

We could go on and on about mental health statistics in young people and the impact of visual social media.

#4: Effective communication is based on empathy

We’ve all met those people who can’t read a room, right?

If we want to develop communication skills in young people (and every skills prediction for the future lists communication in various forms as a key driver), then we need to show them how to understand whether people are with them, understand what they are saying and can make an appropriate response. It is more than body language and eye contact but this is important too.

#5: Empathy can be taught

It doesn’t matter where you are from or who your parents are.

Empathy can be taught, learned and practiced, and the team at Empathy Week (who we love by the way!) believe that films are scientifically proven to help do just that.

“As our world becomes more connected, navigating it becomes more complex. Empathy underpins the other traits and skills we need to develop in order to face society’s biggest challenges.”

Don’t just take our word for it either; all of this is backed up by a wonderful article in Forbes!

Check out our interview with Ed Kirwan from Empathy Week on Episode 164 if you want to hear more.

📺 Watch on YouTube

🎧 Listen on your podcast provider

This post was created with Typeshare