Roots of Empathy Baby Celebrations

To:  Marion Hancock, Director of the Peace Foundation Te Tuapapa Rongomau o Aotearoa;  to Associate Professor Jan Pryor, Chief Commissioner of the Families Commission and Director of the Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families at Victoria University,  to Your Worship Kerry Prendergast, Mayor of Wellington,  to Distinguished Guests,  to Parents;  to Teachers,  to Boys and Girls;  Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu,Taloha Ni, (sign) Greetings to you in all the languages of the Realm of New Zealand.

I thank you for inviting me to attend and speak at the first Roots of Empathy Baby Celebrations in Wellington today and I am proud to be a patron of the New Zealand Peace Foundation who are sponsoring this wonderful programme for a brighter future.

The second year of the programme in Auckland was celebrated at the Auckland Government House last Wednesday.  I was in Wellington as there was core business for the Governor-General in which I played an incidental part.  Dianna Hubbard hosted the event and was thrilled to tell me that this year there were twice as many children talking about what the baby who visited their class meant to them.  She said it melted her heart.

Roots of Empathy continues to grow with programmes now active not just in Canada where it originated but now also in Australia, the United States and here in New Zealand.

Here the programme continues to extend its wings.  It was in Auckland at the end of the first year of the three year pilot programme I heard word of the imminent launch of the programme in Wellington.

That has now happened.  The twenty schools participating in Roots of Empathy in Auckland have now been joined ten schools in Wellington.  Next year it is anticipated that thirty Auckland, twenty Wellington and ten Christchurch schools will be participating.  I believe the values it teaches are sorely needed by the children of today, parents of the future.

The programme is successful.  It is based on the fundamental truth that through guided contact with babies and their parents, children are able to identify and reflect on their own feelings and the feelings of others.  They learn about feelings and reactions and to empathise with others by experiencing tenderness and being aware of the vulnerability of another person.

Intuitively and with guidance, these lucky children learn about the importance of respecting, of caring for others and of parenting.  They also learn about human development and infant safety.

In a culture of caring, violence and bullying are not acceptable.  Where boys have less opportunity to talk about feelings, we now have a model which enables boys to see fathers showing tenderness.  This is a powerful interactive learning approach and is education in the full sense.

I understand that through the Roots of Empathy programme there has been a breakthrough with children who a psychologist would describe as "elective mutes", that is children who have decided not to speak.  They have spoken in response to babies who can reach out in a way that adults cannot.

As Mary Gordon, the Canadian Founder and President of Roots of Empathy noted so well: "Emotions are the first language of the child and the universal language."

Today's gathering is to celebrate all those who have participated in the programme.

It is an opportunity to thank the principals who have invited the programme into their schools and the teachers who have welcomed Roots of Empathy into their classrooms.

It is an opportunity to thank the funders and supporters and to congratulate again the Peace Foundation and its instructors for nurturing and promoting the programme.

It is an opportunity to thank the parents who have volunteered to visit neighbourhood schools and to share their babies and their parenting experiences with schoolchildren.

And, most importantly, it is an opportunity to thank the babies whose innocence has helped to open the hearts and minds of schoolchildren to the value of human empathy.  I thank you all for participating in this programme.

I would like to share what I heard this morning on the radio.  When asked how he rated the World Rugby League Cup win fresh after the victory, a Kiwi player replied "Oorr mate!  It's right up there.  There's my son, my wife and - it's very close!"  Praise indeed from a dad we can be proud of.

No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou,  kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.