Parenthése |

La voix des parents de Colombie-Britannique

The Roots of Empathy Program
in Francophone Schools

By Sara Morison, Program Facilitator at André-Piolat
School in North Vancouver

“Is Tristan coming today?

- No, only next week...

- Awwwi!! Are we going to draw or read a story then?”
The class is bursting with enthusiasm and questions,
and even the most timid students start to contribute.

This is the welcome extended to the Roots of Empa-
thy Program at André-Piolat School where | am in
charge of two classes, the Grades 1/2 class and the
Grades 5/6 class. Each class “adopted” its own baby, born
last summer. Baby Tristan and Baby Sébastien visit their class
each month during their first year of life. As Program Facilita-
tor, | visit fhe class once before each baby visit and once after
each visit to present a new theme to the students. | teach
newborn development and encourage the students to think
about subjects such as temperament, emotions, empathy,
communication and health and safety of the baby.

Itis amazing to see how the arrival of an infant in the classroom
opens doors and prompts questions, ideas and smiles. The
students observe changes from one week to the next and
are delighted with the baby’s progress, as was clear from
the applause when Tristan crawled for the first time towards a
toy! The baby’s weight and length are measured three times
during the year, we sing songs and we ask the mother a multi-
tude of questions: “How many hours does he sleep at night?”
“When did his first tooth come in?” “How do you know if the
baby is in pain, or if he is thirsty or afraid?” “Did you have to
rearrange the house when he started to crawl?” “Does he
know his name?” “What do you do when he’s crying?”

During the other weeks, when | am the only one visiting the
class, the younger students always have stories to tell about
their little brothers or cousins, | read stories, and they demons-
trate their skills and understanding of various subjects through
drawing. The older students develop their skills in collabora-
tion, reflection and understanding by working in small groups.
They compare disposable diapers with cloth diapers. They
listen to stories about bigger children bullying smaller ones,
and they think about solutions for different bullying situations.
They produce a cassette with songs that they have sung

themselves to give as a Christmas present. We also have
bulletin boards in the classroom where we post information
pamphlets (e.g., one about how babies should sleep on their
backs), photos taken during the family visit, ideas explored in
class and drawings. At the end of the year, we celebrate the
baby’s birthday!

The goal of the program is not only to learn how a baby deve-
lops and what if means to be a parent, but also to inspire stu-
dents to use better ways of communicating with peers and to
have more empathetic relationships. Students are confron-
ted with situations and questions such as: “Would you say
anything mean to the baby?” or “How would the baby feel
if someone laughed at him?” By extension, we make them
think about the same situations that they might experience
with their friends.

For that matter, it is not only the students who benefit from the
program. Teachers also participate and have the opportu-
nity to observe their students interacting outside of math and
grammar classes. For the parents of the two babies, this is
a chance fo contribute to the learning of a community of ©
young people, but also fo gain insights themselves, through
the students’ stories and questions, about what they as pa-
rents have to offer their baby and what they can learn about
their child’s development during his first year of life.