Compassion Based Education

We started off 2018 in a great way with Paul Zappa. Paul’s honest and no-nonsense talk introduced us to important issues such as empathy in education, relationships and how they can impact the brain. Conversely, he discussed how exposure to trauma can impact students neurologically and explored what impact that has on us as educators.

Please click here to access Paul Zappa’s presentation

He challenged all of us to think about our own biases and stereotypes with his pilots and taxi driver stories. This led to his very important point that the labels we use on people and way we see the world are significant and if we expect empathy and compassion from our students then we need to demonstrate compassion and show vulnerability which can be challenging for us.

In previous Professional Learning, we have watched the TED talk by Rita Pierson “Every Kid needs a champion” and Paul referenced her video in his talk. Please see the videos below and leave a comment below about something that resonated with you after Paul’s talk.

He introduced us to the work of people like Bene Brown (see video below) and Dr Reggie Melrose whose videos on brain development (see video) and self regulation are very relevant for us as educators today.