Verita Insights Magazine VIS magazine final | Page 25

EVENTS COMPASSION IN EDUCATION with Nipun Mehta We Believe that Students Learn Best in an Empathetic and Caring Environment Nipun Mehta is the founder of ServiceSpace.org - an incubator of projects that support a gift culture. In his mid-twenties, Nipun quit his job to become a "full time volunteer" and over the last 15 years, his work has reached millions, attracted more than 500 thousand volunteers, and mushroomed into numerous projects like DailyGood, Awakin Circles, and Karma Kitchen. Among his many prestigious accolades, President Obama appointed him on a council for social change, Dalai Lama recognized him as an “Unsung Hero of Compassion”, and Germany’s OOOM magazine named him Top 100 Most Inspiring People of 2018. Why compassion in education? Educational systems around the world are increasingly becoming outdated. The traditional “download” of education not only leaves many children bored and uninterested, its overemphasis on tests and grades rewards passive memorization over innovation and creativity, and leaves fresh graduates completely unprepared for the modern workplace. Moreover, children are more plugged into devices and more disconnected than ever before, as bullying rates continue to sky rocket. Many innovators are now suggesting a shift from content to relationship. In the world of Google, content is cheap, automated and freely available. Everything humans can do with content; machines can do better. Amid such a backdrop, a growing body of research suggests that the most valuable commodities for the future are teamwork, collaboration and empathy.With these new strands of possibility, we wanted to take it even one step further and ask: How do we cultivate Compassion Quotient ( CQ )? At an impersonal and social level, how can we build empathy and greater tolerance? . VERITA INSIGHTS  |  25