What Can Children
Learn From a
Baby?
Seeds of Empathy Program
We hear a lot in the media about bullying.
The stories often tell about a child, teen, or young
adult who has been bullied to the point where
they find life unbearable. As parents, we want to ensure that our children never find themselves in this
kind of situation neither as the victim nor as the bully. Parents and teachers would like to see all children
being kind to one another, and forming healthy social relationships and showing kindness for other people requires the ability to think about others feelings and not always think about oneself. This requires
empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. The Seeds of Empathy program is a
preschool literacy program that was designed by Mary Gordon to foster these social and emotional competence skills in three- to five-year-old children. The most surprising and wonderful part of the Seeds of
Empathy program is that a baby is the teacher!
In the Seeds of Empathy program children are taught a series of themes, each on a three-week
cycle. During the first and second weeks of each cycle, classroom teachers read and discuss books with
small groups of children. In the third week, they host a family visit, where a baby and her parent visit the
children in the class for half an hour. Seeds of Empathy is unique in that it powerfully engages children
experientially through the infant and parent, building on the attachment relationship demonstrated between the two.
The themes of the Seeds of Empathy program explore topics such as feeling loved, happy, sad,
afraid, and grumpy, as well as being an individual. The classroom teachers read 20 stories with the