“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” ― Helen Keller

We gathered on Tuesday evening to engage in dialogue around the topic of growing empathy in young children.  It was a lovely evening and we thought we’d take a moment to capture our conversation and reflection, both for the families in attendance as well as for those who were unable to join us.  

What is empathy?…

“Connecting with someone”

“Someone being seen”

“Perspective”

“Being a good listener”

“Feeling what another is feeling”

Work with a partner to create a sculpture that represents things you have in common.
"Hanging by a thread, like our daily lives with young children. Striving for balance and trying for harmony...There’s this Chutes and Ladders kinda feeling here. That’s our life, things going really good then all of a sudden…” Kerri Schubert & Woody Cartwright
Make a sculpture that symbolizes empathy
“So this person is hurt (red) and this person is helping (blue) and together there's purple to symbolize the connection.” Christoph Clement
“These two parts of the sculpture are similar but not the same, kinda mimicking each other and there’s a heart in the middle to connect them, sending love either way.” Vanessa Cartwright
Construct a tool for making new friends, and use it on some people in the room.
"I wanted to create something that would make a meaningful difference to someone’s life. So you take this tube and you whisper what you want or need into here and it goes silently here and catches and I can send it out into the universe and make it happen.” Erica Steckler
Make a gift for someone based on something you just discovered about that person.
“Well, this is a road and a car and what? What’s this? Could it be a police officer and maybe it could be a bear! I made this for someone who shared these stories with me..” Kelly Irwin
“I made this gift for DJ who I discovered was out sick yesterday and I know she would be missing all her students so I created this necklace for her. Can you see how many beads are on it? Yes, 16. One for each of her kids!” Andrew Coleman
Build a tool for fostering empathy
"I got this mirror to help you look at your neighbor." Peter Maggs
“I made this frame. I wanted to frame someone else’s experience and because it’s delicate, much like taking in someone else’s experience. It’s delicate.” Becky Bermont
WORKING WITH A PARTNER, HAVE EACH PERSON CREATE A SCULPTURE OF THEIR OWN, THEN COLLABORATE AND COMBINE THEM TO CREATE ONE SCULPTURE THAT REPRESENTS YOU BOTH AS ONE. “I created this stick guy and he dropped his ice cream cone.” “And I made this ‘empathy sail copter” to swoop in.” Brad Rosen & Mike Irwin
Make a sculptural portrait of someone in the room, and see if others can guess who it is.
“Well, I went abstract and made these two portraits that are ice cream cone portraits of 2 people.” (Wendy & DJ) Ashley Clement
“Can you guess? It’s best to view from all sides.” (Woody?!) Yeah!” John Magee
Working with a partner, build an imaginary creature, with 1 person making the head and 1 person making the body.
“It might not really be a creature but it's connected. It didn’t stay together at first. We had to work at it.” Katie Nicholson and Liz Heald

Self Awareness, the ability to identify and label one’s own feelings and motivations

Other Awareness, the ability to appreciate that other people have feelings too.  These feelings may be similar or different to our own.

Perspective-taking, the ability to see things from someone else’s point of view

Empathy relies on an awareness of self, an awareness of others, and the ability to understand how the two interrelate.

Sharing with the children that their Moms and Dads talked with us about feelings in our meeting the night before, we wondered with them…

What do we mean by feelings?

“I’ve felt feelings.  All different feelings. Sad. Mad. Grumpy.”

CASE

“I’ve felt the same as Case.”  

TAIT

“Feelings come from your heart.”

LUCA

“Feelings come from your head.”

TAIT



Why do feelings happen?

“Other people make other people have them.”

CHARLIE N.