As you know, I don't think we're doing enough to fight bullying in Canada. Even though it's terrorizing children, and corrupting our culture, from sports to politics.
And I wish there were more anti-bullying programs in our schools, and ads on TV, like there are in some countries in Europe.
So you can imagine how happy I was to see that a wonderful Canadian program is being introduced into schools.
In Scotland.
Action for Children's Roots for Empathy programme aims to teach schoolchildren to understand their own feelings and the feelings of others.
Independent evaluations of the programme carried out in Canada - where it originated and has been active for the longest period of time - revealed a significant increase in peer acceptance in 74% of children and a decrease in social aggression in 39% of children.
Personally I'm terrified of babies eh? When my brother handed me his firstborn, I was so afraid of crushing or dropping her, I was shaking like a leaf. And when I hear them wailing in the middle of the night on a plane, I start shaking like a leaf again. Because I wish I had my Mickey Mouse headphones.
But seriously....what a wonderful program.
I totally believe that if we're going to build a kinder, gentler, less war-like world, we have to begin with the children. Especially since some experts have suggested that heavy internet use is killing empathy, and damaging the social bonds that make us better humans.
You know I don't often get to brag about the two countries I love the most eh?
But Scotland forever.
And my beautiful Canada...
4 comments:
A ray of hope :)
Babies make me shake too!
hi sassy...yes it is a ray of hope,a small one, but if it keeps spreading it could do a lot of good. Parents should teach their children empathy, but doing it in a social setting is also important, because as I said in the post, the internet is desensitising children to the feelings of others...
hi prin...yes..it's not that I hate babies you understand, it's just that I have sensitive ears... ;)
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