The youngest teachers in School District #28 are currently between the ages of 8 and 10 months old. Amazingly, they have been on the job for over six months already! These young teachers started in seven primary classrooms in October and were between the ages of two and four months old at the time. Their teaching time ends in May of this year after approximately 27 weeks in the classroom. These babies are part of a program called Roots of Empathy.
The Roots of Empathy program was developed by child advocate Mary Gordon and introduced to school children in Toronto in 1996. When Mary Gordon introduced the program, her goal was to help create a society where people were kind to one another, through a series of lessons that addressed such concepts as emotional literacy, perspective taking, problem solving, caring, participation and democracy to name a few.
With that in mind, she thought that it would be best to start with children who were just developing their social skills, thus, early primary grades.
There is evidence this program has had a significant effect in reducing levels of aggression among children, while raising social/emotional competence and increasing empathy. Children learn to recognize, and to some extent, share the feelings of others, either sadness or happiness for example, through the Roots of Empathy program. The baby becomes the teacher, who shows his or her feelings. This helps the children to identify and reflect on their own feelings and the feelings of others.
One of the unforeseen positive outcomes of this program was the effect it had on bullying; students who participate in the Roots program are less likely to become bullies because they have a greater understanding of emotions.
There are currently seven ‘Roots’ babies teaching in Quesnel classrooms. Given that mobility is a bit of an issue at such a young age, ‘Roots’ babies are accompanied to their respective classrooms by mom, dad, or sometimes both. A Roots of Empathy instructor is also on hand to help with some of the translation. The instructor guides the children as they observe the relationship between the baby and his or her parent(s). Students are able to observe several different emotions conveyed by the baby that they might not recognize as easily in children of their own age. When the baby cries for example, the Roots of Empathy instructor will ask the children why the baby might be crying and several different reasons might be discussed. From these observations, students begin to understand the baby’s intentions and emotions. Through this model of experiential learning, the baby is the “teacher” and a catalyst, helping children identify and reflect on their own feelings or emotions and those of others, especially their classmates.
During the 27 week program, nine different themes are explored in a series of three lessons per theme. For the first lesson, the pre-visit, the instructor visits the classroom without the baby. The theme is introduced and the children are guided to think about the topic and how it relates to the baby and family. In this pre-visit the children make predications, generate questions, and learn new songs or rhymes to share with the family. The second lesson is the family visit. The students make connections with the baby and observe the baby’s development. The third lesson is the post visit. The children debrief about the family visit. The instructor often uses literature, in addition to art/writing activities to explore or extend the theme.
We are truly appreciative of the parents who committed to bringing their babies to the Roots of Empathy programs at the following schools this year: École Baker, Nazko Valley, Voyageur, Barlow Creek, Riverview, Kersley and Bouchie Lake, and to those of you who have participated in the past five years in Quesnel. The positive effects on hundreds of students who have taken part in the program will be felt for years to come.
Cynthia Bernier is Director of Instruction – Curriculum; and Sue-Ellen Miller is Superintendent of Schools.