Since writing this article on Empathy for the Back-to-School edition of Edutopia, the George Lucas Foundation blog, it’s become one of their most popular/shared articles and I think about the profound link between global education and empathy pretty much every day.  After all, it’s when we try to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes and take action around this effort (empathy), that learning about other cultures and issues that might be taking place far away begins on a more profound level.  We aren’t simply looking at “far away” with detached, distant eyes, but as active and engaged “friends to the whole human race.” If we add questions around empathy to our reflection process in global learning, such learning can stick and the empathy “muscle” will grow.

iStockPhoto used @ edutopia.org

Here’s a link to the article again: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/empathy-back-to-school-supply-homa-tavangar.