Visual Empathy Bias

Written By: Hans Appel

“Empathy is the root of humanity and the foundation that helps our children become good, caring people.  But the Empathy Advantage gives them a huge edge at happiness and success”

​​-Dr. Michele Borba, Author of “Unselfie”
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Dr. Tim Elmore, from growing leaders says that the average student today has as much anxiety as the average psychiatric patient of the 1950’s.   In an increasingly anxiety ridden society it’s scary to know that Borba’s research indicates that as anxiety goes up empathy goes down.  In fact, just since 2012, empathy has dropped 29% in college age students which came on the heels of a 40% drop in empathy among college students between 2000-2010.  This frightening inverse relationship between anxiety and empathy makes sense; if students are more stressed, worried, and anxious about their own lives, its harder to focus on what’s going on in other’s lives. ​
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Award Winning Culture welcomes ongoing critical examination of a school’s current educational practices, and intentionally infuses relevant Whole Child strategies into the school’s ecosystem.
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It’s no surprise that empathy is a key soft skill that Whole Child focused schools are actively teaching.  Thanks to programs like Character Strong, empathy is becoming a point of emphasis in the same vein as core subject areas (Math, Science, ELA, etc.) have always been.  By zeroing in on empathy, kindness, and service, Character Strong’s servant leadership model of social emotional learning and character development offers a powerful and necessary #FutureDriven approach to education.  Indeed, in an ever changing, unstable world filled with technology, fear, and a me-first mentality, empathy and kindness seem to be a revelatory anecdote to hate.
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Our Award Winning Culture (AWC) Podcast students are some of our strongest leaders at Wildcat Nation.  These students lead daily efforts in making kindness normal at Enterprise Middle School and help set the standard for positive school culture.  Frankly, in 18 years of education, some of my brightest, most talented high character leaders are found in my current AWC podcast group.

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