LEAP- Session on Empathy.
“I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilizationâ€Â- Roger Ebert
As the quote suggests empathy is the most essential quality of civilization, in other words it helps us to connect with other living beings with more humanitarian approach.
To develop this attitude in our students the previous LEAP session was conducted in conjunction to the unit ‘risks and challenges’. The focus was to empathise with the children having special needs.
Students were divided into five different groups according to the disabilities (autism, learning disability, hearing impairment, communication disorder and physically challenged). After giving a brief description of all the above mentioned conditions they were given a situation where they had to act like a child having that disability. Once all the groups acted, the reflection for this activity was taken using the steps of Design for Change (DFC) model.
This session turned out to be a very sensitive one for the students as they were overwhelmed to go through this process and shared their feeling and emotional as well.