The Importance of Teaching Empathy

(Or, why there were no “winners” at our annual graduation…)

Cedar College
Aug 22, 2017 · 4 min read

One of the boldest — and hardest — decisions we have made as an organisation so far was not giving out any awards at our first graduation ceremony this summer.

Our team met several times leading up to the big day to decide how to reward the students we felt were most deserving. And therein lay the problem: what was our metric of success? Going the traditional route would mean handing out awards to students with the highest grades or to athletes who had won the most games. And while these awards have tremendous value (it’s important to acknowledge stellar work), we found ourselves talking about the students who hadn’t received the highest grades, but who had beaten incredible odds (whether it was overcoming the death of a parent, or adapting to a new school in a new city). We found ourselves talking about the athletes who didn’t win gold, but who showed up for every practice, who cared about their teammates, and who played with dedication and a smile.

We floated the idea of creating awards for non-traditional disciplines: an award for the best writer, filmmaker, photographer, and so on. But figuring out how to award creative work brought up a whole other slew of questions. Judging art is subjective, for one thing, and could very well result in our awarding the most visible or prolific student. The ideas kept coming — perhaps we could create a committee of students who would award their peers through a vote-system. Or print a pamphlet that listed the awards instead of visibly presenting them during the ceremony. At least that way the students who hadn’t won anything wouldn’t go home feeling left out.

Throughout our process, one question kept returning. What were we saying by picking and rewarding winners? What about the students who showed up to school each morning willing to try their utmost best? Or the ones who spent hours after class tutoring their friends? Or the ones who dedicated themselves to community service? If we couldn’t find a way to reward some of the qualities we respected most in our students, our colleagues, and ourselves, did we want winners at all?

We live in a world that is changing at a dramatic and terrifying pace. Technological innovation is upending the way we think, communicate and work. The skills we once prized in our workforce aren’t always relevant anymore, and the traits that increase employability are constantly changing. According to the Harvard Business Review, the rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence means that capabilities like understanding, motivating, and interacting with human beings will become more and more valuable over the next decade. In fact, “skills like persuasion, social understanding, and empathy are going to become differentiators as artificial intelligence and machine learning take over our other tasks.” But the problem is that it is precisely these skills that are declining.

Researchers at Michigan University have found that young people are becoming less empathetic than ever and a survey examining how much time millennials spend on social media concluded that some 87% of millennials admitted to missing out on a conversation because they were distracted by their phone. Given these statistics, it’s clear that the upcoming generation is not adequately being prepared for the vastly different world it’s going to inherit.

“The skills associated with empathy need to become core values in our homes, our schools and the workplace, according to the World Economic Forum. “To provide a future generation with high levels of emotional literacy, we need to institutionalise empathy — to systematise it, making it a part of the foundations of our learning.” And one of the first steps to take is to start treating subjects that foster empathy (like foreign languages, literature and the arts) as crucial instead of as “soft”.

Of course our reasons, as educators, to foster empathy should go beyond potential professional success. At Cedar, we want to develop and nurture young people who will go on to become empathetic leaders and responsible citizens. This means building programs — both academic and extra-curricular — that encourage creativity, critical thinking, and empathy.

And it means taking small steps to send our students the right messages. So, at our graduation ceremony, we went with our gut.

There were no awards. Instead, as each student came forward to collect their diploma, we announced what we were proud of them for; what they gave us and taught us. Every student had left a trail — done something worth remembering, something that had left an impact. It was heartening to recognise and reward this. We had a chance to acknowledge everyone, including students who were creative and kind. We hope that by doing so, we were able to convey that the skills we prize are both diverse and valuable — and that there are many ways to be a winner.

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    Cedar College

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    An A Level college in the heart of Karachi, led by a team of educational pioneers.

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