Mary Kenny considers the Golden Rule as a means to combat bullying
It is being proposed by UNESCO that one of the ways to combat bullying in schools is to teach “empathy” to young children. The dictionary definition of empathy is “the power of entering into the feelings of another person and understanding them fully”.
If children were taught to be empathetic from an early age, perhaps there would be less bullying in schools, colleges and, later, workplaces. If you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes, then you would be less likely to bully or boss them unkindly. That is the view put forward by Prof. Pat Dolan from the UNESCO child and family research centre at Galway.
Who would argue with the notion of ‘empathy education’? Don’t most responsible parents try to teach it anyway when they say to a child who has been unkind to a sibling or playmate – “How would you feel if someone did that to you?”
