Young Peace Leaders: Cultivating Empathy

In order to gain the perspective of another person and explore the quality of empathy, middle school students do an exercise that helps their development of core values in this video from The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values. Students choose an actual shoe and imagine the life of that shoe. As they write about the shoe—figuratively “walking” in those shoes—they reflect on how the experience helped them become more understanding and compassionate toward others.

Click here to view the video.  This site offers several lesson plans and is part of the Transformative Teachers Collection.

Find out more about The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT.