Got an Idea?

Thanks to everyone who submitted entries to our online collaborative competition, powered by Ashoka Changemakers, calling on teachers, principals, parents, students, and other innovators to share ideas for advancing empathy in education. We hit our second-highest total ever, and will be giving out more than $110K in prize money to winners over the coming months. But we're not stopping with a competition. Check out the entries & see what you can do to join the community.
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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.
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Why Empathy?

Stories, interviews, and tips for understanding what empathy is, how to cultivate it, and why it matters.
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Time to Stop Bullying & #StartEmpathy

All across the country, Youth Venturers have decided to put an end to bullying before it starts, by equipping students with the skills they need to take a stand, and by creating a more empathic culture in their schools and communities. We have a team of expert changemakers and mentors on standby to share advice, answer questions, and connect you to other awesome problem-solvers out to build the movement to stop bullying and start empathy.
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It's time to tip the world.

Ashoka Founder & CEO Bill Drayton caught up with the folks at Take Part to explain why knowledge and rules are no longer enough: today's kids must possess the empathy they need to work effectively in teams, and devise solutions where none seem possible.
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Empathy News Round-Up: Contagious yawning in canines, mindfulness & brain science, & the power of YouTube
Submitted by Lennon Flowers on Fri, May 11, 2012
Dog Yawn Study: Human yawns “contagious” for canines (Zuberoa Marcos, Huffington Post, May 8) Turns out, dog lovers may have been right all along: Fido really does “get” what you’re feeling. A new study shows that dogs are more likely to yawn simply when they hear the sound...
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Empathy News Round-Up: The Fundamentals of Leadership, Inside the Google Creative Lab, & Trustability & the Trust Molecule
Submitted by Lennon Flowers on Tue, May 1, 2012
Empathy and experience key to becoming good leader (Christopher Gergen & Stephen Martin, News & Observer, April 29) Empathy is “the glue that holds us together, not only help[ing] us become a better sibling, parent, or friend – it also allows us to lead more...
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Letting Students Lead at St. Ann School in Bridgeport, CT
Submitted by Lennon Flowers on Thu, April 26, 2012
Step into the halls of St. Ann School in Bridgeport, Connecticut – one of the poorest cities in the country – and you immediately feel a special energy and spirit. Perhaps it’s the halls lined with evidence of student-led community projects and ventures (even the landscape...
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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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Q&A with IBM’s Tony Tenicela: Empathy, Diversity, and the Keys to Corporate Turnaround
Submitted by Ashoka ChangeInSight on Mon, May 14, 2012
Submitted by: John Converse Townsend on 05/14/12 Editor's note: This post has been reblogged from Ashoka's Empathy blog. Learn more about Ashoka’s Empathy Initiative! Visit empathy.ashoka.org. “In today's world, where everyone is so interconnected and...
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Living Buildings: Ashoka Fellow Jason McLennan's Architectural Revolution
Submitted by Ashoka ChangeInSight on Fri, May 11, 2012
Submitted by: John Converse Townsend on 05/11/12 Can you imagine an office building or high-rise tower with no energy bill? It's not easy to do; in the United States, the buildings we live and work in consume more energy per day than any other sector of the economy (...
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Miami’s Ashoka office to help build social entrepreneurship in South Florida
Submitted by Ashoka ChangeInSight on Fri, May 11, 2012
Submitted by: John Converse Townsend on 05/11/12 Editor's note: This post was written by Elizabeth R. Miller, communications associate at Knight Foundation.After spending nearly three years boosting social entrepreneurship in the Americas, Ashoka’s Lorena García Duran is...
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