Post written by Homa Tavangar, author of Growing Up Global and a contributor to Ashoka's Start Empathy Initiative, a whole child partner organization. Originally published for Edutopia's back-to-school blog series.
My most important back-to-school supply doesn't fit in a backpack, and it can't be ordered online. It's as essential as a pencil, but unlike a pencil, no technology can replace it. In a sense, like a fresh box of crayons, it can come in many colors. Better than the latest gadget, it's possible to equip every student with it, and even better, when we do, it can transform our world.
It's actually a "muscle" I've been working on all summer. It's empathy.
WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT EMPATHY?
Empathy starts with putting yourself in someone else's shoes—a key step in understanding perspectives that differ from your own. This isn't just a nice thing to do; it's an essential, active skill. It's foundational to embracing differences, building relationships, gaining a global perspective, conducting richer and deeper analysis, and communicating more effectively. This skill is about as "21st century" as it gets. And like a muscle, empathy gets stronger and stronger with practice and can be developed by any grade school child. This is the muscle that allows you to stand up for something, not just stand by.
Also like a muscle, empathy is easy to forget, particularly when operating in a crisis mode, always putting out fires. As a personal example, my daughter had a recent health scare—we discovered she was "skinny-fat."
