Newfoundland woman started Roots of Empathy program, and it has spread around the world

Across the planet, people have been trying to understand each other for ages, and now many countries are turning to a program that a Newfoundland woman started in Canada to help the world learn to empathize.
Mary Gordon is a Newfoundlander who got a doctorate at Memorial University before going to Toronto to work in the education field. There, she created parenting and literacy programs while encountering families suffering from domestic violence, child abuse and neglect.
It was in trying to scratch the itch of addressing social justice problems that she created the program Roots of Empathy to fill a void she saw in the world.
The not-for-profit organization operates a program in which school children spend time with babies and learn from their honest emotions, developing and maintaining empathy.
Gordon, who lives in Toronto but travels all over the world, said she was concerned about bullying and abuse and understood it was the result of the absence of empathy. She defines empathy as the understanding of others’ emotions and caring for them.
Gordon said everyone is born with empathy, but how it develops is influenced by societal factors.
“I see hope for peace in the future,” she said during a telephone interview.
While attending one Roots of Empathy Baby Celebration in 2017, Gordon met a man with his baby who thanked her for starting the program. He explained he was once a student in the program and the experience stuck with him.
Gordon said it was a powerful moment because it meant that lessons are not only being learned, but passed on to future generations.
A Roots of Empathy Baby Celebration was held Thursday in St. John’s at the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District conference centre. Gordon was unable to attend, but praised the families and instructors who make the program possible.
“I am proud to be from Newfoundland,” said Gordon, who visits family here on a regular basis. At the celebration, special recognition was given to Hazel Clark, a former elementary school principal who supported the Roots of Empathy program.
“After being a principal, you realize it’s not just academics that’s important,” Clarke said after the songs were sung, the Roots of Empathy cake cut and the group baby photo taken. “Social and emotional development is as important to their success, if not more, than the academic side of it.”
Clarke and Roots of Empathy senior N.L. mentor Frances Cole have worked with Gordon since 2005 to make Roots of Empathy successful across the province. More than 24,000 N.L. children have participated since it began.
Jennifer Duke and her infant son Cameron attended the baby celebration. They often visit Rennie’s River Elementary School’s Grade 3 class as part of the program.
“It was pretty great just going every few weeks and seeing how excited they were about his growth and development,” Duke said.
Roots of Empathy has now reached almost one million children in 11 countries on the continent.
On May 23, Gordon received the Governor General’s Innovation Award at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. Gordon was “recognized internationally as an award-winning social entrepreneur, educator, author, child advocate and parenting expert who has created programs informed by the power of empathy.”