Empathy 101—read a story.
October 31, 2013
It’s hard work growing up and nobody said it was easy to be a good parent. Children need attention, love and guidance to thrive. A child’s emotional intelligence is key to their personal success and happiness. Empathy is one of the most important qualities parents can help their child develop and comes into being with cultivation, modeling and experiencing empathy first hand.
Empathy is an emotional trait that determines so much of who we are, how we think, and what we do. Children learn to practice empathy by watching their parents and by experiencing it themselves–being treated well by adults who respond warmly to their feelings. Boys and girls develop differently in terms of acquiring and being able to feel and respond with empathy. The ability to take others’ perspective begins rising steadily in girls at age 13, but boys don’t begin until age 15 to show gains in perspective taking.
Parents can play an important role to help instill empathy in both their sons and daughters by encouraging their children to “walk in another person’s shoes,” and there is no better way to think and feel yourself into another person’s shoes than to step inside their story. Reading a person’s story enlarges an individual’s experience of the world and stories stir our emotions and make us feel. In attempting to understand, empathy counts for much. And the literary experience becomes the passport to the entry into an experience.
When you know a person’s story, your empathy for the other grows and you begin to see that person as an individual. You begin to see that you have more in common than you might have imagined and your differences begin to fade in importance The health and well being of the world depend on fathers and mothers taking an active role in encouraging their children to develop empathy. Their children and the world will be better for it.
I try and never forget something Teddy Roosevelt said: “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care”
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Education in China and the United States: How do they compare?
October 24, 2013
I began working in China in 1998 and I just returned from my 18th trip. Reflecting over those many years I realized that certain qualities about education in China stand out. I know how foolish it is to speak in such broad and general terms but I want to share with you what I noticed […]
Books that make a sound in your heart.
October 5, 2013
The New York Public Library is risking the wrath of kids of all ages with a new list of the 100 most popular children’s books of the last 100 years that omits many favorites. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/new-york-public-library-releases-100-popular-children-books-list-article-1.1471423#ixzz2gnjXU2ik I relish the debate! The love of a book is like a love affair and to mess with […]
Mealtime is the ideal time to pay attention to your children.
September 28, 2013
Working in China brings an endless barrage of sights, sounds and experiences that I continually try to understand. In my effort to understand the Chinese people, I think their relationship to food and meals is a very good place to begin. If you meet a Chinese person before lunch, the typical greeting is: “Have you […]
The Reading Relationship transforms the experience of Reading.
September 9, 2013
Different than you might have thought in the past, reading words is not the reading experience – it’s just the beginning. At the heart of the reading experience is the Reading Relationship, which becomes part of a child’s emotional DNA. Conversational Reading (reading and talking with children about a story) changes the reading relationship in […]
