Program Integrity, Controlled Growth Spell Success for Roots of Empathy.

CHILDHOOD IS A UNIVERSAL ASPECT of the human condition. Yet the landscape of childhood is changing rapidly – we witness this daily in our schools. On our playgrounds we see young children carrying cell phones, and in our classrooms we see children who are more sophisticated in their use of computers and digital media than the adults in their lives. Most young adolescents are prolific communicators via text and instant message. They assemble rich and complex interrelationships with peers through social networking. This changing landscape is what author and innovation theorist Clayton Christensen is alerting us to with his theory of disruptive innovation applied to the field of education. A disruptive innovation is one that improves or supplants a product or service in ways the market does not expect. Applying this idea to education, Christensen suggests that by 2019 half of class time in all schools will involve children doing customized learning on computers. It is certainly a possibility that children will be taught differently a decade from now in a way that makes greater use of the tools and possibilities that technology offers. Should it be the case that Christensen’s theory comes to fruition, we need to remember that children’s developmental needs are not going to change. They are still going to require the same level of emotional support they have always required. If children spend half of their classroom time on computers, it is important to look carefully at what happens the other half of the time. In the future, under this possible model, children are going to need social and emotional learning (SEL) – the exact competencies that the Roots of Empathy (ROE) program fosters – more than ever. We feel that ROE is a disruptive innovation in its own right. Our program is disruptive because it challenges the norm that educating for success means educating the intellect. In today’s education system, we have paid scant attention to the role of SEL. We know now that the biggest predictor of later success in life is social and emotional competency. Adults who do not possess these skills are more likely to face mental illness and addiction, incarceration, unemployment or underemployment, and other negative life consequences. ROE addresses the great need for SEL in the classroom – using babies as teachers, another disruptive innovation, certainly – and improves upon the idea of education in a way no one expected.