Empathy needs instructors
Shannon LeClair – Times Reporter
The Roots of Empathy, ROE, program has been in Strathmore classrooms all over the town. The program was founded in 1996 and to date have helped more than 325,000 kids. ROE brings babies, aged two months to four months, into the classrooms to teach students, from kindergarten to Grade Five, about empathy. The babies can’t be older than four months because one focus behind the program is to allow the children to see how the baby grows during its first year.
“We have a different baby for each class because each class owns that baby for that duration,” said Kari Jumaga, Roots of Empathy instructor.
The children had the chance to watch the babies grow, and to learn about them. Each of the five Strathmore schools, which hosted a baby in their classroom, had their final visits in May and June.
The baby was going to the classroom every other week, with the weeks they weren’t there being a discussion time about the previous weeks topic. There are nine different topics and the instructor from ROE visited the classroom for 27 weeks.
At the beginning of every visit a welcome song was sung for the baby, and at the end of each class a goodbye song. Each of the classrooms made a wish tree for their baby, things they want the baby to have when it grows up. Each classroom also checked how much the baby has grown, both in height and weight, since first coming into the classroom.
Emily Jackins brought her son Lucas to be a part of Monica Major’s kindergarten class at Trinity Lutheran Christian Academy.
“It’s been fun to see how much they like watching him grow,” said Jackins on May 10.
On May 11 Candi brought her son Jake, nine months, for his final visit at Westmount Elementary. He was a part of Mrs. VanDriel’s 5C class. “It was great, I loved it, it was an experience for myself and for Jake. I’m sad its over, its been awesome,” said Candi.
May 12 Jumaga was back at Westmount school with parents Ron and Amy, and their eight-and-a-half month old son Owen. This time it was for the 5B class. The class sang itsy-bitsy spider, which is Owens favourite song.
“We just want him to grow up to be a happy healthy adult,” said Amy, when asked what her wishes are for baby Owen.
On May 25 Jumaga was off to Brentwood Elementary to let the class say goodbye to eleven-month-old baby Brett. His mom Jennifer even brought his older sister Alycha, 5, to say goodbye to everyone as well. Councillor Lois Wegener also attended Brett’s last visit.
“I think its absolutely marvelous, I was amazed to see the children, and the one little boy who thought he (Brett) was a part of the family and was sad to know he wasn’t going to keep seeing him,” said Wegener.
“The fact they were so concerned about the safety issues, and what the baby is eating and I was amazed to notice the boys were more concerned than the girls.”
Wegener sits on the board for the Wheatland Family Community Support Services, WFCSS.
June 17 was the final visit for ROE in a Strathmore classroom. It was at Sacred Heart Academy, SHA, for a Grade 1 class. Paityn Noll was the only baby girl who was in the ROE this year in Strathmore. For her final visit her parents Rick and Kim and her grandmother came for a pre-birthday party. Students bought birthday presents for Paityn.
“When you hear the kids say ‘she has hair, she has teeth’, I think it makes you appreciate the little things that you might not take the time to recognize,” said Kim.
On top of the wish tree each visit ended with cupcakes, and every baby was given an ROE shirt, which said ‘Teacher’, because each baby was the teacher. For a while there was a fear funding may not go through and the program would cease in Strathmore.
“The children were just so into the babies’ lives, interacting with them and some of them don’t get a chance to be around a baby at home, which is why I think its so important. It’s a program we do support, I sit on (WFCSS) and it’s definitely a program I would personally vote on to keep funding, and I know we are,” said Wegener.
The funding being approved only solves a small part of what ROE is facing in Strathmore. They are looking for new parents who are willing to involve their child in the ROE program. The child must be no older than four months to qualify. Another thing ROE is in desperate need of are more instructors. If someone is interested in becoming an instructor, but wants more information, they can go to www.rootsofempathy.org and or call 403-410-3808.