Is that an eye-catching title ? Or more like a silly way to catch attention to something like a sale ? Never mind ! :) As a Mom of a school going child .. one thinks perennially about schooling / classes / tuition / education system / school boards / subjects and the like.
And while there are so many things one learns in school and so many things that get 'unlearnt' - like the joy of learning while pursuing marks - I feel that if there is one thing that I could add to the syllabus - I would add the teaching and learning of empathy.
Now this does not sound very earth shaking does it ? But it would bring about a paradigm shift in the thinking process and the way life itself is handled.Why empathy ?
- For one thing is is not wishy-washy like sympathy.
- Secondly it involves some amount of imagination and courage. It makes us go beyond ourselves and into the shoes of the person across whom we are sitting.
- It is more than conscience too.
- It is not connected with religion at all. So no dogmas need follow.
Yes all other moral values like - honesty, compassion, discipline, contentment ( vs avarice ), industriousness , respect for others etc are good but I would think empathy is at the root of all these values.
Think about it -
- If the creator of the Ponzi scheme was empathetic - he may not have ended up looting the life savings of so many old retired people. He/She would have understood the devastation that loss would bring about.
- Domestic violence would not be an issue b'cos the person involved would understand the physical and mental pain the victim would feel.
- Women complaining about the glass ceiling and discrepancy in wages for the same work would be heard with an open mind.
- Dowry deaths especially the heinous burning would be a thing of the past.
- We would perhaps switch to "Ahimsa Silk" so as to not kill the millions of silk worms for our usage. Ditto with animal furs...
- Child Abuse would make the person feel so abhorrent that it would not come to play at all ....
- Human trafficking - what is that ? :)
- We would have fire escapes that work, more water works in villages where women have to go miles for water, roads that don't vanish in monsoons, teenagers who think it is great to weave around aging trucks with no power steering more circumspect.
- Who would there be to teach a guy to walk into a railway station and fire bullets into unsuspecting people ?
- Nobody would wake up after an operation with a wrong missing body part.
... And so on ......
Empathy - would lead to being more responsible. More open to negotiations. Not just expecting without taking responsibility. Ameliorating problematic situations. It would make us better humans. And therein lies the crux.
2 comments:
I guess so...But then I'm thinking... can it be taught? Who'll teach? How? Even if it is taught/learnt, would someone implement it in their life? Becoz in the end it is up to the individual to implement it in their life and that again comes down to the individual's core character and character cannot be taught.
I would think it can be taught .. after all hatred which leads to radicalization of society can be taught na ?
The "How" of it is not my area of expertise so no clue.
Implementation is a different thing. We may not have 100% implementation but awareness and ability to think em-pathetically is first step .. Character on a whole cannot be taught but traits can always be nurtured ...
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