While Internet bullies send teens to their deaths and preschoolers such as Phoenix Sinclair are tortured and killed by caregivers, babies have been visiting Manitoba classrooms during the last 10 years teaching kids compassion.
Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 22/5/2013 (3331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
While Internet bullies send teens to their deaths and preschoolers such as Phoenix Sinclair are tortured and killed by caregivers, babies have been visiting Manitoba classrooms during the last 10 years teaching kids compassion.
At Voyageur School in Crestview Wednesday morning, Rylen Frend cried, smiled, babbled, ate and spilled some food and gave the Grade 2 class a lesson in empathy that research says works.
Mary Gordon and Rylen
The Roots of Empathy program was implemented provincewide in the 2002/03 school year and 35,000 kindergarten to Grade 8 students have experienced it.
Program founder Mary Gordon visited Winnipeg Wednesday, and said she came up with the idea after seeing one similarity in all the child abuse and neglect cases she encountered.
"The common denominator was an absence of empathy." The parent had never felt it or seen it, said the internationally renowned teacher, children's advocate and parenting expert. The program she founded in 1996 brings babies and parents into the classroom so kids can see a healthy bond and identify with a vulnerable infant. Roots of Empathy has been adopted around the world and Gordon has been invited to speak at the United Nations about how showing compassion to kids can change behaviour, if not the world.
"It's experiential learning -- the heart and mind together," the Torontonian said.
At Winnipeg's Voyageur School, the elementary students have known Rylen and his mother Cindy since he was nine weeks old and began visiting them. They've watched him grow and seen how his mom interacts with him. They've compared what they can do as Grade 2 students to what Rylen can do now that he's nine months. The children talked about why he cried, how he felt, and if it was OK that he was a messy eater. They observed whether he was able to grasp cut up peaches at his stage of development. When he grabbed a piece of peach and put it in his mouth, the children "gave him snaps" with their fingers rather than applause that might scare him. The seven-year-olds were riveted to the baby's face, watching for emotion as he tasted squash for the first time.
"We pretty much live in an emotionally illiterate world," said Gordon. Children may be sad or have hurt feelings and not understand how to express them other than through anger or bottling them up inside, said Gordon. "I only want you to be Pollyannas," is the message kids often hear. "We don't want to hear about negative feelings in our culture."
Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press
Students at Voyageur School interact with baby Rylen as Children and Youth Opportunities Minister Kevin Chief watches.
The program is working in the city, country and First Nation classrooms, said Children and Youth Opportunities Minister Kevin Chief. Getting to know a baby and understanding vulnerability helps children to think about and talk about their own vulnerability -- how they're really feeling, and to find out that it's OK, he said Wednesday.
The Free Press | Newsletter
Want to get a head start on your day?
Get the day’s breaking stories, weather forecast, and more sent straight to your inbox every weekday morning.
Certified instructors provide classroom training three times a month during the school year and each class receives a monthly visit from a neighbourhood parent and baby.
The positive behaviour that comes from having compassion is worth the investment, he said.
Every dollar invested in early-childhood programs results in $17 saved later, he said. Next year, the province is investing $356,400 in Roots of Empathy.
"There's an increase in self-esteem," he said. "It absolutely works."
Cindy Frend said her two older children -- Hope in Grade 6 and K.J. in Grade 4 -- experienced the Roots of Empathy program and encouraged her and their baby brother to take part. "It's had a positive impact on how they treat one another."
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Carol Sanders Legislature reporter
After 20 years of reporting on the growing diversity of people calling Manitoba home, Carol moved to the legislature bureau in early 2020.
IT'S been taught all over the world but Manitoba was the first jurisdiction to evaluate Roots of Empathy (ROE).
Eight school divisions were randomly assigned to either a treatment group that received ROE in 2002-2003 (445 students) or a wait-list control group (315 students). These were compared on three child mental-health outcomes (physical aggression, indirect aggression and pro-social behaviour), rated by teachers and students (self-rated). The three wait-list school divisions received ROE in 2003-2004 (new cohort of 265 students) and were compared with the control group from 2002-2003 on the three outcomes, for replication purposes.
The study found the program prevents physical aggression and indirect aggression, promotes pro-social behaviour in children, and was equally effective for boys and girls, and different ages and grades.
The beneficial effects lasted up to three years after completing the program.
The Winnipeg Free Press invites you to share your opinion on this story in a letter to the editor. A selection of letters to the editor are published daily.
To submit a letter:
• fill out the form on this page, or
• email letters@freepress.mb.ca, or
• mail Letters to the Editor, 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2X 3B6.
Letters must include the writer’s full name, address, and a daytime phone number. Letters are edited for length and clarity.