On November 14, 1997, 14-year-old Reena Virk was swarmed and beaten under a bridge on Vancouver Island by a group of predominantly young girls. That the event was horrific and shocking is uncontested. That the event is part of a greater increase in bullying and general aggression among our nation’s children is perhaps a more debatable point, but it’s one that Mary Gordon makes in Roots of Empathy, a comprehensive guide to fostering empathy and thus social responsibility among children and adults.

Though Gordon suggests that bullying is escalating, this is not her book’s raison d’etre. It is more ambitious, offering an overall analysis of the notion of empathy (putting oneself in the place of another), its value, and how to engender it. Not only does it address extreme manifestations of aggression in children and intergenerational patterns of abuse, but it also aims to educate all children on parenting, as it is they who will eventually teach the leaders of tomorrow. Gordon also aims to give parents greater insight into developmental psychology, thus helping them to raise thoughtful, responsible members of society.

The work is culled from Gordon’s many years as an educator, which led her to create a progressive program entitled the Roots of Empathy in 1996. The program brings together parents, babies, and young students. The parents and baby, along with a program instructor, meet throughout a given year, with, for example, a Grade 1 class. The students watch the development of the baby through these monitored sessions, and spend time before the visits and after, anticipating and then discussing the baby’s progress.

The theory is that the baby sees all children without judgment, and the child’s self-esteem grows through this unconditional acceptance. Bonds are developed via the baby’s weakness and vulnerability, and the roots of empathy begin to grow. Gordon gives meaning to this notion with a simple analogy. As the baby falls over and over again while attempting to crawl, the child compares the struggle to struggles in his or her own life, analogies that are encouraged in the before and after discussion sessions.

This idea is not new, and whether consciously or not, the work seems inspired by the progressive thinking of Jean Jacques Rousseau in his work on childhood education, Emile. For both authors, children form the core of humanity’s possibilities.

But Gordon does not have contempt for those children who have not learned the lessons of empathy. They are deserving of compassion, and she believes that through her guide they can develop a more empathic life. For most of us, the idea of humanizing Reena Virk’s killers may be a bit tough to swallow, but thankfully there is someone out there with the guts to do it.