Will they beat it into them?
I have visions of a teacher with a belt, screaming "You will become a caring individual!"
Hey, it worked for me.
Seriously, I don't think it's a bad thing, but will it make any difference to children from an abusive environment? There's a limit to what school can do with pupils from dysfunctional homes, but perhaps that should be for another thread. And then again, I'm pretty sure we were taught at school about sharing, co-operation, etc.
But seriously, it's true that there is a limit to what a school can do, but that doesn't mean we've already reached that limit.
Also, I believe attempting to instill empathy is not the same thing as teaching about sharing and co-operation; it's about teaching the children to understand how
other people feel, not simply to make compromises.
A family member of mine is a teacher working mainly with children with learnings impairment. Several of her students have Asperger symptoms, which means they often are somewhat lacking in empathy. She told me of a particular student who had the habit of pulling the hats from other student's heads during recess; obviously, the others didn't like this very much. The teacher took the student aside and drew pictures of the situation with thought bubbles over the student's heads, and then filled them together with the student.
One bubble said "It's really fun pulling hats off" while the other said "What is he doing? I'm scared!". The student was very surprised, asking if
that was really what the other person was thinking. As a result, this particular misbehaviour of the student disappeared almost completely.
Of course, teaching average students is not quite so simple a matter, but the anecdote led me to believe that it
is possible to teach empathy, or at least emphatic thinking. I believe it would be an excellent idea to add something similar to normal school curricula.
