Last fall, Andrew Harrington’s second-grade class at Coe Elementary School (2424 Seventh Ave. W.) had three extra teachers: Two were volunteers, and the other was a baby named Miles.
Miles, his mother and a volunteer instructor taught students empathy as part of the Roots of Empathy program.
“Though Roots of Empathy, [the students] were able to see, if baby Miles is smiling, he may want to interact, but if baby Miles was scowling, then he needed some space,” Harrington said.
Now, as the school year begins again, Roots of Empathy is looking for mothers and babies to head to local Seattle classrooms.
The program is a “social-emotional learning program” that encourages children to think about feelings and learn empathy, particularly through the nonverbal communication between a parent and baby.
Connecting with feelings
The Roots of Empathy program began in Canada in 1996 by Mary Gordon, who was inspired by the interactions of mothers and babies at a parent and family center where she worked.
Seattle was Roots of Empathy’s first U.S. city when it came in 2007. Since then, the program has reached 7,500 children in Washington, including students at Queen Anne and Frantz Coe elementary schools. It is now in 46 schools across Washington state. The program is designed for kindergarten through eighth-grade classes.
Throughout the school year, Roots of Empathy instructors show up in classrooms 27 times. Nine of those times, a Roots of Empathy family comes along, usually a mother or father and a baby. Children observe the baby as it grows through its first year and reaches different developmental milestones. When the instructor is there alone, he or she prepares the class for the baby’s visit or talk about what the students observed the last visit.
Melissa Soltani, the program manager for the Roots of Empathy program in Washington state, explained that Gordon’s slogan is “Empathy cannot be taught; it’s caught.”
The family is the heart of the program, Soltani said.
Roots of Empathy helps children understand that everyone has the same feelings, “whether it’s the person sitting next to you in class, your parent or a child 1,000 miles away from you,” she explained.
Children who go through the Roots of Empathy program have greater compassion, more empathy and are less likely to exclude people, Soltani said.
“Empathy makes [children] more likely to reach out to a child on a playground and invite them to come and play,” she said.
On days when parents and babies visit, children sit around a green blanket and observe the parent and baby.
“They’re watching the attachment of the parent and the baby,” Soltani said. “They’re seeing that the parent is so responsive to the needs of the baby, even though there’s no verbal communication.”
There are nine themes, each following the developmental stages of the baby, that are covered throughout the year. As the baby becomes more mobile, safety is one of the themes. The children and instructor talk about the baby’s safety, but the students also talk about safety in their own lives. During these discussions, children can openly talk about their own feelings.
“To have that really authentic piece of communication going on in the classroom around feelings really strengthens the classroom community,” Soltani said.
Harrington, the second-grade teacher at Coe, inherited the program when he started teaching there three years ago.
“[Roots of Empathy] gives kids a better sense of connection to each other,” he said.
The program helps students understand that, although they are different, they all have the same feelings; Harrington said this is especially impactful cross-culturally.
The children love to have the baby in the classroom, Harrington said.
“I think...an unintentional impact is kids who don’t have younger siblings learn to interact with babies,” he said.
Harrington said he isn’t sure his students always understand the significance of the baby. “Seven- and 8-year-olds don’t always make connection that baby Miles is an [example] of their friend at recess,” he said.
Harrington said the instructor’s discussions about feeling with the class are more important.
Roots of Empathy also has a program for 3- to 5-year-olds called Seeds of Empathy, which has impacted 400 children in Washington state. That program is in local preschools, and it prepares children for school and encourages literacy through a love of reading, said Soltani, who is also the Seeds of Empathy manager for the United States.
Instructors and the families are all volunteers. Last year, 95 Seattle classrooms had a Roots of Empathy program; this year, Soltani hopes to increase it to 115 Seattle classrooms.
In years past, Roots of Empathy used school nurses or family advocates as the classroom instructors, but they have become increasingly more difficult to have with tightening budgets. This year, Roots of Empathy is reaching out to the wider school and neighborhood communities to find volunteers. It’s looking for 15 to 20 additional instructors for the year.
Instructors go through a three-day training at the beginning of the year and a fourth training day when they are halfway through the program.
Roots of Empathy is also looking for families with babies who would like to volunteer for the program. The babies should be between 8 and 16 weeks old when they start the program in the fall.
This short window makes things more difficult, Soltani said. The family will meet with the instructor beforehand, but they do not receive training.
The most important thing is for the children to see attachment and support for the baby, Soltani said: “[Volunteers] can really make an impact in a school community. It’s not only an immediate [impact]; it’s a lasting impact.”
A subsidized program
The program cost differs based on schools, Soltani said. Private schools are handled on an individual basis. The typical price is $57 per child. In Seattle Public Schools, it charges a reduced rate of $257 per classroom. The Einhorn Family Charitable Trust and the John and Nancy Sabol Foundation subsidize this lower rate.
Roots of Empathy became a nonprofit in 2011. Community members can sponsor a classroom for $257 so the class can have the Roots of Empathy curriculum that year.
Soltani would like to see the Roots of Empathy program grow to more cities in the United States.
“We’re so fortunate in that we’re positioned to be an example for other cities,” she said. “[It’s important to] take the time out to help children [realize] who they are individually and who their peers are and to understand that we all have these same feelings and emotions.”
To volunteer with Roots of Empathy or sponsor a class, contact Melissa Soltani at msoltani@rootsofempathy.org or (206) 914-7929.
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