​Cynthia Gunn

“I am a Mom with 2 kids, age 11 and 14.

When I heard about Roots of Empathy a few months ago, I thought the idea of bringing a baby into the classroom as a way to connect with kids was both simple and brilliant. I could only imagine that making the connection with a baby, and its vulnerability and loveability, was a great way to make parallels with all children and people about the need to treat each other with respect and dignity. If you would never hurt a baby with words or actions, why then would you do that to another child or person? Everyone is different, and it is an ongoing challenge even for adults to accept each other as they are!

I would hope that the children would carry these ideas through to other parts of their lives, in a way that becomes second nature. It may be a bit early yet to see the benefits; however, I do see a growing connection to baby Ira and genuine curiosity about him.”

The school and WEHSA are happy to announce that we will be bringing you regular updates on the Roots of Empathy program through the WEHSA website.  The program is currently being offered to both of our Grade 1 classes.

We have created a blog called "Roots of Empathy News" or "ROE News", for short, where we will be posting highlights and happenings on the program. We hope you will check in regularly to find out about the latest happenings.

We would have liked to begin sharing news from the get-go, but it was very important to have the proper permissions for publication from all the participants in our program.

We encourage you to share ROE News with your child, family and friends. We would also love to hear from you. The blog has a comment feature where you can share your thoughts.

Over the next few weeks we will be catching up a little bit.   You will get to learn how ROE came to be at the school, meet the babies and their families, and the instructors, as well as see pictures from our Course for Kindness Walk-a-thon where funds raised through your generosity made ROE a reality at our school.

As a first post, we would like to remind everyone of ROE's objectives which are outlined below.  For more detailed information, please visit www.rootsofempathy.org.

Don't forget!  As part of our Walk-a-Thon, all students from each grade will have a chance to win prizes for participating in the "Course for Kindness" Walk-a-Thon. 

Prizes will be drawn by our very own 'Tracksuit Luke'. 

We thank La Toque and Ma Boule for generously donating gift certificates in support of the Walk-a-Thon.

Good luck to our students!  :)

We are thrilled to share the news that our two volunteer instructor have started working and the babies and their families have visited the classes.  The school has set-up a bulletin board between the school office and the multipurpose room to share updates and pictures, and we encourage everyone to take a look when you are at the school!

While we have met our target to raise funds to train our two instructors, there are annual ongoing costs for the maintenance of the program estimated at between $1,000 to $1,200 a year.  As such. we are welcoming donations to help cover these costs.

Thank you to our school families in supporting the "Course for Kindness" Walk-a-Thon!

At the heart of the Roots of Empathy program are classroom visits by an infant and their parent. Through guided observations of this loving relationship, children learn to identify and reflect on their own thoughts, feelings, and those of others. Roots of Empathy classrooms also foster an inclusive environment and encourage children to better understand the perspective of others. 

The power of a secure relationship between an infant and parent is the first and most powerful model of empathy. Through experiential learning in the classroom where all children benefit from observing the loving attachment relationship between the infant and parent who visit the classroom nine times through the school year. The Instructor uses this experiential learning to help children reflect on their own temperaments and development. The children come to understand that while they are all different, they share the same feelings. When the children find the humanity in the baby, they then find it in themselves and one another – empathy. By the end of the year this change from within results in an increase in self-regulation, resilience and wellbeing. The program also benefits the infant’s parents, classroom teachers, and school staff and as each child becomes more caring, helpful and inclusive within their classroom, they carry those behaviours to their homes, school hallways and community environment.

Watch this 2-min video for a quick intro to Roots of Empathy.