Roots of Empathy: Changing the World, Child by Child [Hardcover]

This brilliant program belongs in every classroom in every school in every country of the world, forever. There's no better way to teach empathy - the essential human trait. (Raffi Cavoukian, singer, author, ecology advocate )

This is a remarkable book. In clear and lively language, Mary Gordon introduces us to the wisdom of babies and shows us how they can teach us - and our children - what it is to be human. Over a lifetime, I have learned that the human capacities for empathy and respect must be fostered from earliest childhood to reduce violence in the world and build a truly civil society. (The Honourable Landon Pearson, Advisor on Children's Rights to the Minister of Foreign Affairs )

This book describes the extraordinary value of the Roots of Empathy program, probably the best program of its kind to support optimal early childhood development and to help communities build tolerant pluralistic democratic societies. (Dr. J. Fraser Mustard, Founding President , The Canadian Institute for Advanced Research )

There is nothing more cruel or wasteful than the marginalization that cripples a third of humanity, drags down economics, and contributes so much to prejudice and destructive self hate. Roots of Empathy cuts right to the roots of this plague. It opens a door that allows children to escape the closed circle of aggression begetting aggression. It frees them to begin the long process of learning and mastering the empathy based ethics that is central to their world and the world's future. (Bill Drayton, Chair and CEO of Ashoka Innovators for the Public )

I had the great privilege of experiencing first hand Mary Gordon's method of communicating with and engendering empathy and emotional literacy in children. There is nothing in this world I feel more grateful for. I believe it is the main reason why I became an artist and a social activist. (Sarah Polley, Genie Award-Winning Actor and Director )

With violence, anti-social behaviour, bullying, and aggression among young children escalating at a frightening rate, it is clear that we need to develop a new understanding of childhood. Mary Gordon, an educator who has worked for more than two decades with children from all kinds of backgrounds, has discovered that the solution to bullying and other anti-social behaviour lies within each child's innate sense of caring and compassion. She believes that infusing children with empathy constitutes nothing less than a paradigm in our approach to child-raising. Empathy is the ability to understand another person's point of view and respect their feelings. Even the most troubled children can quell violent and aggressive behaviour if they are loved and nurtured. Through Roots of Empathy, her highly successful organization, Mary Gordon creates a rich, rewarding classroom experience that fosters empathy within children. Bringing babies and children together creates a symbiotic loving environment that reduces aggression in children while increasing tolerance and emotional literacy. An interactive experience for parents, teachers, and children, the Roots of Empathy program aims to solve current and future problems in our society by teaching emotional literacy now. In "Roots of Empathy", the innovative, inspired book based on her groundbreaking research and success in actual classroom situations, Mary Gordon shares her vision of a nation of compassionate and caring children who will pass on their legacy of empathy to their own children.

In 1981, Mary Gordon, educator, international speaker, and award-winning social entrepreneur, founded Canada's first and largest network of Parenting and Family Literacy Centres. In 1996, she went on to found Roots of Empathy, which now reaches more than 20,000 students in eight provinces and has been piloted in Japan and Australia. Gordon is a recipient of an Ashoka Fellowship, The Fraser Mustard Award, and a Distinguished Canadian Educator Award and the Order of Canada. Born and raised in Newfoundland, Gordon now lives in Toronto. All of the royalties from this book go back into the Roots of Empathy program.