Empathy, the Ultimate Human Trait
In briefAI summary — tap to read
Mary Gordon founded Roots of Empathy, an international program bringing volunteer parents and babies into elementary school classrooms to help children develop empathy through lived experience rather than instruction. She argues that empathy—the ability to feel with others—is essential for addressing violence, loneliness, conflict, and global challenges, and that authentic connection with infants naturally cultivates this fundamental human trait in young learners.
Key takeaways
- Empathy is caught, not taught; it develops experientially through authentic emotional connection, not through traditional classroom instruction or praise-based learning.
- Roots of Empathy places a volunteer-led baby in the classroom for the full school year, where trained instructors guide children to identify and discuss the baby's feelings and their own, building emotional literacy and perspective-taking skills.
- Research shows that children who participate in Roots of Empathy become measurably less aggressive and violent while demonstrating stronger social and emotional competencies that persist over time.
- The program operates on principles of intrinsic motivation, Socratic questioning, and non-judgmental listening, which allows quieter and struggling students to contribute and feel safe being vulnerable.
- Empathy is essential for solving major societal challenges—from conflict resolution and mental health to climate action—because it requires genuine connection with those we cannot see and future generations.
About Mary GordonMary Gordon is an award-winning social entrepreneur and educator who created Roots of Empathy in 1996 and Seeds of Empathy in 2005; she serves as Executive Member of the Ashoka Global Board of Directors and has consulted for the World Health Organization and United Nations.
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Program: Empathy, the Ultimate Human Trait
Speaker: Mary Gordon
Every week we bring you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how they contribute to service to others.
What does it mean to be human? Even the youngest child can explain that being human means you have emotions. Empathy is under attack in many quarters these days, but is also being heralded as the most important trait in leadership. Why does it matter? Without the ability to understand how another feels and be able to feel that same feeling, we will never be able to have deep connections with others. The new pandemic of loneliness is associated with poor mental health and general misery.
Just as the first step in any conflict resolution is perspective taking, the closing of a conflict requires empathy. In 1996 Mary Gordon created the Roots of Empathy program for elementary school children using a baby as a teacher. She had come to understand that all forms of violence, whether domestic violence, child abuse, or gratuitous violence, had one thing in common – the absence of empathy.
Mary Gordon is recognized internationally as an award-winning social entrepreneur, educator, best-selling author, child advocate and parenting expert who has created programs informed by the power of empathy. In 1996, she created the Roots of Empathy program, which as an international children's charity now offers programs on three continents. In 2005, she created Seeds of Empathy for 3 to 5-year-old children in childcare which is offered in Canada, the U.S. and U.K.
Ms. Gordon speaks and consults for educational organizations and public institutions, including the World Health Organization and the United Nations. She is often a keynote presenter and panelist, discussing the role of empathy and social entrepreneurship at international conferences such as UBS Global Philanthropy Forum in Germany. In the last couple of years, Ms. Gordon has had a prominent presence at several notable events in the education sector. She contributed to a policy paper on global education, presented to G20.
As a thought leader, she has participated in and spoken at international events such as Atlantic Rim Collaboratory (ARC) Summit for Ministers of Education hosted by the Scottish government, Equimundo’s Changemaker Summit in Rio this year, and the New Longevity Summit in Balboa, Spain, where she made the connection between empathy and longevity. She is the recipient of many awards recognizing her contribution to innovation in education and international social entrepreneurship, including being elected as Canada’s first Ashoka Fellow in 2002 and a Global Fellow in Stockholm in 2011. She is an Executive Member of the Ashoka Global Board of Directors in Washington DC.
Members and guests, please welcome Mary Gordon!
To learn more, go to:
Roots of Empathy Website:
https://rootsofempathy.org/
BBC Video about Roots of Empathy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH5mmBEMavI
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootsofempathy/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RootsofEmpathy/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/roots-of-empathy/
X: https://x.com/RootsofEmpathy
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