Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76Plough Quarterly • Winter 2015 13 value. Even the most hardened and distant child can learn empathy, and it is amazing to watch it happen. That’s what Mary Gordon discovered when she founded Roots of Empathy, a program that brings babies into classrooms, with remark- able effects in reduced bullying. She writes: “Darren was the oldest child I ever saw in a Roots of Empathy class. He was in eighth grade and had been held back twice. He was two years older than everyone else and already starting to grow a beard. I knew his story: his mother had been murdered in front of his eyes when he was four years old, and he had lived in a succession of foster homes ever since. Darren looked menacing because he wanted us to know he was tough: his head was shaved except for a ponytail at the top and he had a tattoo on the back of his head. “The instructor of the Roots of Empathy program was explaining to the class about differ- ences in temperament. She invited the young mother who was visiting the class with Evan, her six-month-old baby, to share her thoughts about her baby’s temperament. Joining in the discussion, the mother told the class how Evan liked to face outwards when he was in the infant carrier, how he didn’t want to cuddle into her, and how she wished he was a more cuddly baby. As the class ended, the mother asked if anyone wanted to try on the carrier, which was green and trimmed with pink brocade. “To everyone’s surprise, Darren offered to try it, and as the other students scrambled to get ready for lunch, he strapped it on. Then he asked if he could put Evan in. The mother was a little apprehensive, but she handed him the baby, and he put Evan in, facing towards his chest. That wise little baby snuggled right in, and Darren took him into a quiet corner and rocked back and forth with the baby in his arms for several minutes. Finally, he came back to where the mother and instruc- tor were waiting and asked: ‘If nobody has ever loved you, do you think you could still be a good father?’ “A seed has been sown here. This boy, who has seen things no child should see, whose young life has been marked by abandonment, who has struggled to adolescence with scarcely a memory of love, has seen a glimmer of hope. Through these moments of contact with the uncritical affection of the baby, a young man has caught an image of himself as a parent that runs counter to his loveless childhood. The baby may have changed the tra- jectory of this youth’s future by allowing him to see the humanity in himself.”4 Today even small children hear about many threatening events, from terrorism and warfare to global warming and widespread hunger. All this can make a child fearful. Here a child’s simple faith in the power of good – that love and John Singer Sargent, detail, Portrait of ­Lancelot Allen It is children who lead us to the truth. We are not worthy to educate even one of them. From WikiArt (public domain)