Rippling: How Social Entrepreneurs Spread Innovation Throughout the World

Chapter 16

From Babies to Behavioral Shift—Canada

Mary Gordon created the Roots of Empathy program in 1996 with the goal of building caring, peaceful, and civil societies in the next generation by fostering empathy in children. Her innovation leverages the interactions between a parent and infant by bringing them into the classroom as an ideal model of empathy from which children can learn.

THE ROOTS OF EMPATHY GREEN BLANKET WAS SPREAD ON THE FLOOR of the classroom. A mother and her tiny four-month-old baby entered the room and all the children stood around the blanket in a circle while quietly singing the Roots of Empathy Welcome song. As she slowly walked around the inside of the circle, the mother held her daughter in front of her at the ...