Not too long ago, an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education asked if colleges should be teaching empathy through role-playing, empathy experiments, etc. Apparently some colleges already are.
I am not advocating for empathy education nor saying I am in agreement with the article, but I thought it was interesting that it is a topic of serious conversation in higher education.
I’m not sure at this point. The college used in the example did not offer credit for the empathy course. And, one of the links within the article [http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Should-We-Care-What/128420/ seemed to focus on how professors could teach empathy along with their current subjects of expertise. But, they would attempt to teach empathy in a different way than they would teach English, Math, etc. However, they also believe empathy is measurable through multiple choice tests. They are certain, however, that empathy can be taught and that everyone has the capacity to learn to empathize — even though they say that some may need to work harder at it or spend more time working at it.
Personally, I have never understood how spending a night in a cardboard box gives a person a homeless feeling or how going a day without food allows a person to know what a starving Somalian is going through, because all the while you are in the box or feeling hungry you know in the back of your mind that the next morning or the next day you will be snug in your home with a full belly of food. The experiment may induce feelings of empathy, but it is only because you think about how miserable you are/were; not necessarily because you are thinking only of other people. So, it seems that they think the cure for narcissism is empathy training, but through the process of empathy training the focus is on yourself — it still seems narcissistic.
Discussion
Newsecular perspective
I am not advocating for empathy education nor saying I am in agreement with the article, but I thought it was interesting that it is a topic of serious conversation in higher education.
http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/should-we-teach-empathy-in-colle…
Newwell. . . .
Personally, I have never understood how spending a night in a cardboard box gives a person a homeless feeling or how going a day without food allows a person to know what a starving Somalian is going through, because all the while you are in the box or feeling hungry you know in the back of your mind that the next morning or the next day you will be snug in your home with a full belly of food. The experiment may induce feelings of empathy, but it is only because you think about how miserable you are/were; not necessarily because you are thinking only of other people. So, it seems that they think the cure for narcissism is empathy training, but through the process of empathy training the focus is on yourself — it still seems narcissistic.