New Literacy and the Changemaker Generation: Why Empathy Is As Important As Reading And Math

In a world of interaction and complexity — one that relies on collaboration for success and contribution — the stakes for every child mastering empathy have never been higher. Team-of-teams is a way of working that is highly interactive, and individual integrity, a premium standard in this system, is directly proportional to change pursued for the good. Also, rules can’t keep up with this level of change, making cognitive empathy-based ethics essential in our everyday leadership and changemaking.

Youth learning must, therefore, be calibrated so teens are practicing cognitive empathy-based ethics, co-creative teamwork (team-of-teams), a new kind of leadership in which everyone on the team is an initiatory player, and changemaking. Learning in the early grades must be focused on the mastery of empathy as a fundamental skill needed for success and contribution in today’s dynamically changing world.