We raised them: the creation of social justice

 

K. Cronick

We are collectively responsible for our culture’s children. If we raise selfish, self-centered children, and worse, if, when our kids grow up, we place them in powerful political and economic positions, it is a cultural choice. On the other hand, if we teach them to be caring and empathetic, we have also made a choice about who we wish to be and how we wish to live.

How do we foster selfishness? Frist of all we need to teach fear. We have to suppress empathy. The cultivation of fear can be a self-defensive mechanism for group solidarity and even group survival. On the other hand, empathy can be an empowering tool. Ines Kudo &  Joan Hartley (n.d) observe that “social skills” can enhance learning in general. They also contrast “grit” and “social skills”. Grit, that is, self-reliance and endurance can be useful for personal success in completing educational and professional goals, but may also produce loneliness. Social skills, like openness to empathy, can lead to their possibilities for more meaningful lives as adults.

Empathy, the authors warn, must be accompanied by the awareness of how to use it. They say:

Empathy and compassion are meaningful when children know, understand and trust themselves, as well as when they know who they are, what they have in common with others and what sets them apart. We need to teach children to be aware and in control of their impulses and emotions so that they are able to focus on how others feel without dismissing their own feelings or letting them get in the way. Only then will empathy and compassion build true connectedness. Teaching empathy requires also helping students understand and acknowledge the discrimination, condescension or oppression –open or hidden, macro or micro– that other people and groups experience day to day due to their gender, age, ethnicity, faith, socio-economic condition, sexual orientation, etc.

This means that a capacity for empathy must be combined with a “broader skill set” that includes critical thinking and a basic understanding of “the conditions that perpetuate injustice”. A basic, spontaneous empathetic reaction is to drop some coins into a beggar’s bowl. A broader understanding would lead to life-choices that may result in the creation of a culture of justice and compassion.  

References

Ines Kudo &  Joan Hartley (n.d.).Teaching (with) empathy and compassion in schools. UNESCO  https://mgiep.unesco.org/article/teaching-with-empathy-and-compassion-in-schools