Introducing StartEmpathy.org!

Check out our new digital home for parents, educators, students, and fellow enthusiasts looking to make the case for why empathy matters, and to share and discover practical tips for developing it. Join our Facebook community, share your thoughts on Twitter with #StartEmpathy, and discover what you can do to get involved.
Check it out.

Announcing Ashoka’s Newest Changemaker Schools

It is so exciting to announce the newest members of the Changemaker Schools Network, a community of leading elementary schools that teach children at their school communities to be changemakers: empathic leaders, capable of working in teams to solve shared problems.
Learn more about these schools!

A Year at Mission Hill

Watch the Prezi on "A Year at Mission Hill" as it evolves with new episodes, written commentaries, podcasts, animated shorts, and many other WATCH-READ-LISTEN-DO resources now through June 2013!
Join us in reimagining public education in our nation!

Empathy Explorer

Take a look at this series of short videos in which the whimsical genius Ed Stockham explores what empathy is, why it matters, and how we "start" it.
Explore the videos!

READY TO HELP DEFINE THE FUTURE OF EDUCATION?

This won’t happen with just a few policy wonks gathered around a table. Whether you’re a parent, a student, a teacher, a principal, or someone who simply cares about education, here’s what you can do to get started.
Read more.
Enabling Empathy in Schools: A bite-sized challenge?
Submitted by Joseph Katona on Thu, April 18, 2013
When Jane Davis asked Ashoka CEO, Bill Drayton ‘why empathy?’ 20 other people waited with bated breath to hear what this visionary had to say about the next generation of changemaking skills. In fact it’s a question well worth asking, why is ‘empathy’ important?  ...
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'Starting Empathy' in the UK
Submitted by Joseph Katona on Tue, April 9, 2013
What is ‘empathy’ for Ashoka?  Empathy simply put, is the ability to understand the feelings and perspectives of others, and to use that understanding to guide one’s actions. It is critical both to individual human development and to our collective ability to solve...
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Announcing Ashoka’s Newest Changemaker Schools
Submitted by Joseph Katona on Thu, March 21, 2013
It is so exciting to announce the newest members of the Changemaker Schools Network, a community of leading elementary schools that teach children at their school communities to be changemakers: empathic leaders, capable of working in teams to solve shared problems....
Read More >>

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A Muscular Empathy
December 14, 2011
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/a-muscular-empathy/249984/
The Atlantic

Ta-Nehisi Coates makes the case for a "muscular empathy," rooted in a curiosity and a rigorous - not simplified - investigation of the decisions we might make were we in different times or in others' shoes. "It's all fine and good to declare that you would have freed your slaves," writes Coates. "But it's much more interesting to assume that you wouldn't and then ask '...

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Rats Show Empathy
December 9, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/13/science/observatory-rats-have-empathy-study-fi...
New York Times

YouTube is chock-full of popular videos of monkeys working together to share food, of elephants acting empathically toward their peers. For some reason, people love stories of empathy in animals. (Maybe such scenes trigger an...

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Strangers Can Spot Genetic Disposition For Empathy
November 18, 2011
http://www.npr.org/2011/11/18/142512092/strangers-can-spot-genetic-disposition-f...
NPR

We're hard-wired for empathy. But are some more hard-wired than others? According to recent studies: yes. NPR's "Science Friday" features Dr. Sarina Rodrigues-Saturn, assistant professor  of psychology at Oregon State University, discussing recent discoveries about our genetic predisposition for empathy.  With program host Ira Flatow and guest callers, Dr....

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Co-Creating Our Future, One Big Idea At A Time
Submitted by Ashoka ChangeInSight on Tue, May 21, 2013
Submitted by: Tsega Belachew on 05/21/13 Editor's Note: This article was written by Karabi Acharya with the AshokaUS team and first appeared on Forbes. It used to be that if you went to school and studied hard, you would get a job, buy a house and be a generally...
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A tribute to Ashoka Pakistani Fellow Abdul Waheed Khan
Submitted by Ashoka ChangeInSight on Fri, May 17, 2013
Submitted by: Tsega Belachew on 05/17/13 Ashoka is honored to celebrate the life of Ashoka Fellow Abdul Waheed Khan.  Abdul was brutally murdered at the age of 36 in front of his co-educational school in Qasba Colony, Karachi. Abdul was elected as an Ashoka Fellow...
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Ashoka Fellow Abdul Waheed Killed in Karachi Leaves a Legacy of a "Bright Education"
Submitted by Ashoka ChangeInSight on Thu, May 16, 2013
Submitted by: Tsega Belachew on 05/16/13 Ashoka is saddened to report that Fellow Abdul Waheed was killed on May 13, 2013. Abdul was creating opportunities for a modern education in the poor, urban localities in Pakistan, particularly by working with children studying...
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