YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
Empathy Is the New Literacy
by Danielle Goldstone, Founding Director of Ashoka’s Empathy Initiative
“D
o you want to
play kickball with
us?” Unsolicited,
a second-grader
at an inner-city Oakland, California,
school invites into his game the adult
stranger standing awestruck on the
blacktop at the school recess break.
It looks like chaos, as any playground
with over a hundred children would.
But there seems to be only one other
adult around, and the children are
engaging happily in various forms
of play. If conflict arises between
students that they cannot resolve, one
of a few students in “junior coach”
t-shirts jumps in to help mediate. But
the need for this is rare. The secondgrader explains the game. “You wait
in this line for your turn.” The ball
appears to hit the painted line of the
kickball court, and one student thinks
it’s in, the other, out. Without a word,
they walk up to each other and throw
out their fists—for a game of rock-paper-scissors. Decision made, the game
continues. If you blinked, you would
have missed it. “Good job,” the young
people waiting their turn yell out to
the student exiting the game.
From a distance, it looks like a
bunch of kids just fooling around at
recess. Up close, you see it is far more
IMAGINE l SPRING 2016 7