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n you think of that can develop open-mindedness and empathy. Share your views in the Padlet below.
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Every day I try to not forget to act intencionally, knowing that my students see in me a model: I teach them how to act ... by acting.

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Educating the vicinity developing compassion and admiration is our challenge. Teach to share feelings and areas of mutual interest is a duty.

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"What is Privilege" could be a powerful resource to  make students realize either to be joyful for what they have or motivate them to achieve what they want.

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It's important to develop empathy and open-mindedness in the classrooms.
The our classrooms have a lot of foreign kids but every time that arrives a new student something changes.
The students must create a new group,  and the teachers can help the students to find a new mindedness and empathy.
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I try to develop  empathy by trying to learn  different things,  cultures and by discussing with people who are completely different than me.

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The video above is very good. Already shared on Facebook :) It is true that you use the classroom as it will cause students to think about each other and develop empathy and respect.

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Know that your students watch you. They learn from your character and behaviors as much as they do from your instruction. Be a consistent example of empathy, and exude a caring, compassionate, understanding attitude. They’ll follow your lead. The empathy is very important to teach!

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I think that empathy and respect are  important words to teach.

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My students have already developed empathy and are open-minded ,because our local community is very diverse and they have their own experience on that.But as their teacher,I try to increase these with activities that use theater or literarure as a medium to raise consciousness and open their mind

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For the first, thank you so much for resources; they are very important for our job.
Empathy is a very powerful activity to be developed in each educational context, not only in reference to cultural diversity.
It is important "to put himself in the shoes", and we teachers should be the first to write this example, you can start from this to teach children to understand and respect their emotions, or ways of life, ways of being and communicate.

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Piera, Italy.Empathy and open-mindedness: 2 buildings to have always at your side, in your class, in any action as a teacher I have to do, yhe keys to open people and their action. Privilege?? an open space to act in.

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Piera, Italy.Empathy and open-mindedness: 2 buildings to have always at your side, in your class, in any action as a teacher I have to do, yhe keys to open people and their action. Privilege?? an open space to act in.

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From a young age I've traveled a lot and forged important relationships in many European Countries. I think these my experiences, the desire to discover  others and the pleasure of  new knowledges have opened my mind. I don't know if I'm a nice person, but certainly I feel that I'm strongly empathetic and I think I can convey this quality.
As Alicia and Erika, I believe that some activities can better develop open-mindedness and empathy, especially when they put into a deep relationship and push to the true knowledge of the other.
The theater, for example, has these feature because it pushes, through  fiction, to put yourself in someone else's shoes.
I've also made some personal experiences and I've the example of experienced teachers in the theater who can achieve great results with the most diverse class groups.
The video shows a very interesting activity which can be experimented with pupils as a play and which can get several answers to many difficult questions about diversity and discrimination.

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I think that openness and empathy depend on the experience and on the personality. As more experiences of contact between people so you can develop a empathy .

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Literature or film in the classroom are ways to develop empathy and open-mindedness

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Empathy is a unique characteristic that encompasses the emotional and intuitive aspects of an individual. Empathy is understood as the capability to recognize or understand another's state of mind or emotion. Open-mindedness is understood to be the process of showing receptiveness to new or different ideas. Based on these definitions of empathy and open-mindedness, it is clear that the two are drastically similar. Both involve understanding another person's ideas or state of mind, and perhaps as a consequence, gaining some form of acceptance from this understanding. It is important to develop both of them in our classrooms.

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I think that openness and empathy is an individual and cultural factor. Some people, as well as some cultures are more open to dialogue, to debate and to put themselves in others' shoes. The proposals are very interesting activities.
I'll try to make them!
Empathy and open-mindedness are essential value and skills that family and school have to teach and develop in children.

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A starting point to develop one's open-mindedness is stop thinking we have all the answers... Empathy is a feeling of connection, but there can't be empathy without listening. I'd like to propose the activity "What is privilege" to my students, adapting it to their age. I think it's really envolving.

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I think family and social environment are responsible for one's openmindedness and empathy. School can do a lot, and teachers have a great part in the process of growing up children, persons capable of looking at their fellows without fear or prejudice.

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Empathy and respect are  important words. the video about "What is privilege" helps to reflect about this matter and to understand feelings, thoughts of individuals.

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I think empathy is a gift that we can improve. Open-mindness is a result of the education (given by the parents and by the school).

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Empathy and open-mindedness are essential value and skills that family and school have to teach and develop in children.
Students contains personal belief, opinions, values, but they don't live alone, but in group: to be open-minded and friendly is the first aim of education.
In a classroom, promoting understanding and acceptance of diversity represents a basic tool and practice.

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Really the video is very interesting and it might be interesting to propose it as an asset instead of exhausting discussions that occur during meetings between teachers. To my boys I might instead propose revised and adapted, I believe it is very effective to have to take the role of ...

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I lived lots of years abroad and had the great luck to be and work together with people from all over Europe and the whole world! In my school I try to organize eTwinning- projects every year and since 2015 I run an Erasmus plus project, my students have the chance to travel around and meet new people. I also try to do projects that make them think about the society, the privileges and the problems that we and people in other countries have. I also try to implement small activities in my lessons that force students to put themselves in other people's shoes. I liked the video but I would definetely change the questions for younger students.

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In this globalized world it is very important to teach tolerance, empathy and open-mindedness. It is difficult and I believe it helps if you are a good example of this yourself.

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The video was really interesting.

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I found the video about the "What is privilege" activity very interesting and I think I could use it with my students with some adaptations. I think an activity like this can help students to develop empathy, because they can try putting themselves in others' shoes, by looking at the reactions of the others. Emphaty and open-mindness are essential in order to create a relationship with people of different countries.
Yesterday I took  part in a seminar about interculture. I heard the  reports of some young people, who lived for a long time abroad. I was particularly moved by a young man, who  had lived one year in Thailand. He was fashinated by this country, he spoke about the guest family as if it was his own family. He had learnt Thai language and he had develop emphaty with this culture. He reported also about his experience as "monch for a day" and it was very moving.

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I have participated in an activity like the one presented in the video. I must say it was shocking to see how some people were left behind and some others walked to the end! It was a very successful technique to help us be more open minded and realize what a privilege is in life! I would do exactly the same activity but I would change the situation involved . I would adjust them to the age of y students-primary school children

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To identify with the feelings, thoughts and behavior of individuals from different cultural backgrounds, it's important to acquire some understanding of those cultures. It's also important have an open and unprejudiced attitude toward other groups, cultural values and are open to new ideas. I find the video a very useful activity. Promoting in the classroom understanding and acceptance of diversity is basic to instaurate positive relationships among students and teachers.

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I started my professional path like educator, so i face a lot this kind of things and i  had to improve my onpemindness and welcoming competence ( it was and it's my big value and aim) for working in very hard contest with foreign minors. I daily use my experience in classroom to discuss with them, to share and to deal some specific difficulties that pupils can find. Anyway in the VET where i work the openmindness is very hard, even if they have so various backgrounds, but their families have social and cultural problems, so i think we have to improve our actions to promote this feeling. I think also i can propose this video, because they can understand it (aged 16/18). than you.

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I find the video a  very useful activity. It makes students reflect about "What is privilege". I would try it in a fifth class in primary school, leaving the approach basically how it is in the video. I would adapt it  making a circle time moment to share their opinions and emotions throught a brainstorming about the meaning of privilege, trying to explain it to the students of different cultures.
then you can ask them to draw this experience and at the end create a video like a simple spot entitled "My privilege".

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I think that empathy and open-mindedness is an essential value to be taught and learnt (at all levels!).
Students bring their own background to the class, which means personal belief, opinions, values, and everybody is unique in this respect. Being open means to understand this uniqueness and consider that as a treasure, not as something dangerous or obscure.
In the classroom, promoting understanding and acceptance of diversity should represent a basic everyday practice (also by using activities like that described in the video, which I found really powerful).

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The video "What is privilege" was very interesting,but I cannot use this activity with my students, becaus they are very young (age 6-10).
Empathy, tolerance and open-mindedness are basic to instaurate positive relationships among students and teachers. My pupils like talking about themselves and share their moods and culture.

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I liked the activity filmed in the video very much, but it can't be adapted to my very young pupils, who are 7 years old.
During these last work years I learned to approach to intercultural diversity in an empathic way because in our school we experience it everyday in our classrooms.
Unfortunately, not all my collegues are so open-minded. My approach to the foreign pupils influence the result of the relationship among students coming from different cultural and social backgrounds. They've learned that each of them has a particular privilege, based on his own culture and mentality. I could adapt this activity to my learners changing the statements, in order to make them more suitable to their age, for example one of it should be: "Do you like playing with all your classmates?"

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In my classes some special needs students aren’t Italian. The video “What is the privilege”” is an interesting idea. But I think to use stories and pictures. Visual supporters remain in mind while a game can focus on wrong goal. They are teenagers! I believe that role plays in dramatizations of real situations can develop empathy and open-mindedness. Besides I am going to watch this video together  so we will be able to begin a discussion and debate then simulating social positions.

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Thanks for this video. I'mgoing to use this activity with my students (age18-19)..they have (I Have!) many privileges without realizing how lucky we are

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The video above was very good. I think it should be used in class to get students thinking about others and develop empathy and respect. I grew up in Canada and a multi-cultural classroom was the norm. We used to work on projects where each of us could exhibit our own culture and talk about the language and the customs. I felt that all the students in the classroom had their own individual background but that we all belonged to one group and that was our class.

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I was born and raised in Sweden. That is the reason I became open-minded. I had friends from all over the world! I read many books and stories that helped me develop empathy. I want to travel more because I want to see how people live in different countries. I believe that my children don’t have empathy and they aren’t open-minded because they don’t have experiences which can help them develop such skills. “What is privilege” is a little bit difficult game for children. If they say the truth they might feel awkward…

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We can adapt the video to the proper age of our students and use it as a role playing game. So, what's a privilege? And who can claim is so privileged? Knowing each other, recognising the needs of others, will help us develop empathy for both ourselves and our students, too.

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I believe that by meeting people, reading books, travelling, watching movies and interacting with new and different situations in general, we develop empathy and open - mindedness. I think that students have a sense of empaphy and open- mindedness but they need to develop and cultivate it more. They need to discover theirself. So we try to include in the daily program activities such as: reading books, role - play games, running emotional education projects, discuss and solve problems.

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My students are studying abroad and they will change the country every 6 months, so I think they can already use thei own experiences to work and compare them with other people.

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Developing empathy and open-mindedness is very important for our society nowadays. Personally, I try to develop open-mindness and empathy by trying to learn more or different things, countries and cultures and by discussing and try to make friends with people who are completely different than me. Another way of become more empathetic is to try to stand in others’ position and think about your possible actions. Of course, this is not an easy action. Whenever possible, I try to make my students understand this principles and discuss with them for quite controversial things. In general, privilege is something that many other people do not have although they may want so. The video is great and tries to show how complex is our society nowadays.

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Empathy, tolerance, open-mindedness and understanding of the diversity are the basics in our multifaceted society. Thus, the video proves us with great reality how complex the social reality is.

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Developing empathy and open-mindedness is very important.

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The truth is that I consider myself an open minded person but every day I have to struggle to prove myself to myself. I'm really interested in new ideas and point of views and I always try to do new things in my classes because doing the same thing is BORING. But from time to time I am very strict with myself and I think I don't work hard enough or that my work is not well organised. Things are changing very fast and when I have to deal with a new situation - like cultural diversity - I want to learn new things and be exposed to different realities but I'm not sure how much of this I am able to assimilate. I'm trying though.... The video "What is privilege?" is truly inspiring and brought some tears in my eyes. Great way of realizing our position and reconsidering our priorities. It is an excellent idea to work this it with students but one has to select carefully the phrases that move the "players" according to their age, interests and special needs

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Empathy in multicultural and multietnical classes has an important weight.

Sometimes I tend to think of some students who apparently only care for frivolous aspects, that they aren’t empathic but, in most of the cases they are only pretending to be someone else.

For instance they show being empathic when a classmate has a problem , or when there is a discussion about newspapers read in class…

I think I should use  "What is Privilege?" adapting it and changing some of the questions

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"What is privilege"
I find the video a  very stimulating activity. It makes students reflect a lot.I would try it in a fifth class in primary school, leaving the approach basically how it is in the video.I would adapt it with  a preactivity brainstorming/discussion about the meaning of privilege, trying to explain it to the students of different cultures.
I woul simplify the questions for 10 years old pupils . After the activity I I would make a circle time moment to share their opinions and emotions about their final positions.
As a final activity I would ask them to draw this experience.
I would record the activity while they move to show them the global view of the class. They could also  ask parents for the word privilege in the different languages at home and talk about it in class

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Empathy is very important in every classroom,but there is a little bit of it in our school. Sometimes even the teachers are not able to realize the real empathy between their pupils. I often ask the foreiner students to speak about their previous school experiences and every italian student always listen to them. Every pupil learn something interesting and first of all learn to listen to the different culture's pupils

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My open-mindedness and empathy have resulted from the way I was brought up in my family, my life-long learning and my travels. However, not all my learners have had the above privileges so they are not yet as open-minded and empathetic as they shouldbe. Here is where education comes in through specific classroom activities.

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Empathy and respect differences is something that I always try to build in my class.
Personaly I always try to get new knowledge and come closer to societies which are different than this one I live in.This is something which helps me a lot in my daily teaching procces.
Respect, accept the differences and trying to understand the others.These are the three steps I'm always trying to do in my class.

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I've found these themes very important for us, who make a work so much important for the young persons and for the society. Of course, it would be wonderful to be able to create an ideal place for the students, rich of respect, tolerance and open mindedness, but, above all, it would be more important to let them an important lesson of life.

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I developed my own empathy and open-mindedness in different ways. I've studied foreign languages at the university. Foreign  literature, poetry, drama, essays,  history raised my interest in other laanguages,cultures , ways of thinking ,living,and lands. Travelling, taking part to summer work camps, having pen-friends,living by  foreign families, teaching and living  in Germany and Africa for nine years , singing in different choruses, joining theatre/music workshops and performances, having  friends from different countries. This is is my background and it is  with me  when I am with my students and I want to learn some words in their own languages, talk with them and share my prevoius school experiences talking about the students I had abroad.Last year with the class year 1(6 years old)  pupils I worked , talking a lot about the different cultural situation of african children and tried to create empathy and welcoming environment, sense of group with the class:I think they have reached a quite good  level of empathy but it must  improve day by day.All the teachers n the team must work on this finality with a common aim.and effort.

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Empathy, respect and acceptane not tolerance I have learned from the constantly changing environment around me while I was growing up due to my dad's work and my mothers need for change. I used to feel targeted and sensed a lot of negative attitude from others. Now I believe that I am who I am not despite the difficulties but because of them and I am happy that I had all those opportunities that make me a caring, diverse person.
I wish to support my students cherish who they are and accept their greatness.

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Empathy, respect and tolerance are very important for to create a community and for me is very important to buil and develop student's capacity to listen to other people.

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Travelling helped me to open my mind. In every place I visited I learned something different! A teach in a language branch of a secondary school, so I'm trying to make my students enjoy by discovering new cultures. I don't know if an activity like "What the privilege" could run well at my school. We are managing a conferences cycle about the refugees topic, because we would like they understand the problem from inside.

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I believe it is very important to make students know how people in different countries live. In this way they will understand how priviledged they are and they will admire people who were not as lucky as them. This is a way of making them learn with their own experience how to be empathic with others.

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Great video. I would like to use it in my classroom. I think circle time for example can be used also with adults to improove empathy. Is no simple because the background and personal caracter, different age and so on, sometimes stop the activity. Teacher with competence, creatività,

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I believe that empathy is an individual factor and very important cultural. Unfortunately still different people, as well as some cultures are more open to dialogue, the debate trying to get in the shoes of others. The proposals presented in the videos are very interesting activities. I hope to be able to apply them in my classes and transmit the positive value also to my colleagues.

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In my classes there are students  that belong to the gipsy community.They are
considered a minority in our town and they live in bad conditions. They don't attend school regularly and very often they are overlooked by the rest of the society.Not so at school we work to create empathy and open-mindedness among students involving also their parents in the effort to change our way of thinking .

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I developed my own open-mindedness first by studying foreign languages and literatures and then travelling abroad.
For what concerns empathy, I think I learnt it from my family and again studying literature, especially poetry.
I am really impressed by the activities  proposed here, the video on privilege is stunning.

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This video is very interesting. Empathy, respect and tolerance are very important for to create a community and for me is very important to buil and develop student's capacity to listen to other people.

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I evolve my open-mindedness and empathy through the knowledge of other peoples and the experience in other countries. Often I use my experiences in my classroom, because students show interest in other culture.

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The video above touched me deeply: I do love thise knid of activities, as they are involving and make people reflect. I've been working in a difficult class this year, which is their last one. There's not a strong sense of being a group as a class, many children have difficulties in many aspects (a socio-cultural low level, negative examples by their families and so on), so it's very difficult to work with them. I've been thinking on adapting that activity about privileges to make them reflect at least on positive aspects of their life and to enhance sympathy and understanding among them.

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I develop my open-mindedness and empathy by travelling in many countryes over europe and I think I could develop it further meeting and trying to know the Others and tryng to wear their dresses. I think my students are almost emphatic, in fact they don't show any form of racism or indifference toward the foreign students present in their class, but it would be interesting to adapt the "privilege activity" to their age (14-15) to reflect all together about what we give for done and is, instead, a privilege

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I think empathy is a form of intelligence. I wasn't sure to be empathic enough, expecially because I'm a quite undemonstrative person, but in these last weeks I'm receiving a positive feedback from my students so I suppose to be empathic. It's hard to explain this idea in a different language, but that's what I feel. I met a lot of empathic people in my life and I loved spending time with them. On the other hand, I met people who really wanted to be empathic but they were role playing and that's quite sad, expecially in adults. In my experience honest-to-goodness and unworldly people are more empathic than others.
Concerning to be open-minded, I think I am. Reading, travelling, meeting people from different countries helped me in becoming open-minded. Now, I believe that this one should be one of the most important goals of instruction and education.

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The open-mindedness can be developed through the knowledge, understanding and respect for diversity, the comparison between different cultures, the stimulus to consider diversity as enrichment.

Empathy, however, can be promoted both through cooperative learning either through the attention and appreciation of all the positive aspects of social life and a repressive intervention of all aspects that, conversely, are negative for the social life.

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I developed my open-mindedness and empathy by reading Greek history, by travelling and making friends who came from other countries. Now, that we (my family and I) have moved to a new country, I think I can develop it further. The young students that I had in Greece were not very open-minded but they really cared a lot for each other. I really liked the "What is privilege" activity and I will surely use it (with some changes in the content) in the future. It reminded me of some of my students who lived in mountainous villages and weren't as privileged as town/ city students were.

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My open-mindedness was developed mostly by travelling and making friends in other countries. Also, by reading books. Studying maths also helps a lot in this. Developing my empathy was not that easy. I had to go through a really difficult period of time to understand how important was the support I got not only of my friends but of other people quite different from me, who were still able to feel for me, despite our differences. So, it got me thinking...
For my students, I wouldn't say they are really open-minded yet but they are surprisingly empathic with each other, something that I admire a lot!
To help them develop their empathy and open-mindedness towards refugees, as they are more grown up, I think I would show them some videos that stress the similarities of today's refugees and migrants to those of the middle 20th century like the following:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWAtvaN18vM&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN_TygoVXic (syrian refugees talking with greek subs)
and those with stories of children:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3scOr_d9Dwo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDy8_8L3s0A

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I think that openness and empathy is an individual and cultural factor. Some people, as well as some cultures are more open to dialogue, to debate and to put themselves in others' shoes. The proposals are very interesting activities. I'll try to make them!

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I think that to be open=minded depends very much of your culture, education and the space where you have grow-up. Wh should prepare the students for future for living in a multicultural society, to try to make them think and focuse on their role in society, to make them undeerstand that a human being is the same all over the world, they have the same needs, they feel the same, they have to respect and to be respected, they have dreams and obligations and they have to be treated equal

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Some of my students are open-minded, others aren't. It depends on the examples they've received from their families and the way they decide to react to the teachings from school. I try to make them focus on the goals and explain to them that human beings have the same dreams, the same goals to reach and the same need to feel happy.

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Wat is proposed to the generality of students can also be proposed to students with special educational needs. It would adapt the identification of emotions, presenting figures / images / SPC Language: to cry, to laugh, to anger etc. and would ask when this has already happened to them and how others reacted to it. We were playing an ex game: an angry person and they would have to look angry. Dramatization is also good to express yourself.
Encourage writing or drawing in your journal
To develop empathy and sharing for example cooking together. Example form groups and distribute ingredients in different quantities for each group in which they would have to negotiate between them.
Knowing oneself, expressing oneself in different ways and learning to listen to others is very important.

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My students are so different and open minded. I try to give them  the possibility of showing their feelings and emotions and to be well prepared of living all the situations life could offers.

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The lessons are very interesting

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My students are open-minded. I try to develop their empathy by showing them different ways of living and explaining them that we must respect diversity. We can develop open-mindedness by showing our students videos about different traditions and cultures.

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Respect, empathy, tolerance are values to be promoted from early childhood, just as individual and cultural differences can be overcome. Put yourself in the shoes of others allows you to expand your horizons and hear each other as a part of you. Teachers need to be capable of great empathy and by their example should make even empathetic their pupils.

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I read about a school where Teachers received a false newsletter that  forced all foreigners or foreigners'sons to study in a different room.
Children's reactions were very tender.

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For me the developing empathy & open-midedness is an important activity. It's very difficult in my school creat a workgroup  with the other collegine. I think the video post on top is interesting and probably i'll try it in my class.

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2.5 Developing empathy & open-mindedness
This activity reminds me another one I did with the children in the kindergarten. During a project about the empathy and reading the emotions all the children had the same amount of cards in which all the emotions were symbolically  represented by small faces (happiness,  anger, saddness etc.). When a photo was shown or a statement was announced the children were raising up the card wich declared their emotions. At the end a conversion among them was helpful for me to understant their emotions about other people or situations.

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I strongly believe in the value of empathy in our society. I think we should be more 'empathy-oriented' in every aspect of our lives. Empathy should be taught and practiced at every level of education, from kindergarden to university; in professional training courses too.
I became very interested in the matter, reading Daniel Goleman writings on Emotion Intelligence. and I developed a personal project similar to the Enable lesson plans you shared. Everyday I asked the students to tell how they feel, they can also give a number (from 0 to 10) to their day: 0 means the day is awful, 10 means it is awesome. This helps them to get in touch with their feelings and sharing them with their peers. We also work on how to deal with the emotions they feel and we discuss what strategies can be used to cope with anger or frustration. I found very useful the resource book "Talkabout  for teenagers" and the "Kidshealth" website. And I can assure that it works. Obviously, you cannot expect to see changes immediately, but it works on a deeper level: it helps kids to feel part of a group and to handle their emotions and others' emotions as something important that has to be taken into consideration and not be ignored.
Now that I'm working with adults things are a bit different. I still ask them to share how they feel, but everyone has already their own strategy to cope with the emotion they feel, so I do not want to lead them in any particular direction. Even if I am a big "Buzzfeed" fan, I did not know about the "What is a Privilege" activity. Teaching adults, I think it should be a perfect activity to run in my classrooms.

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Thank you for the video  I think I will try and do this exercise with my students in class. That will be a good opportunity to reflect about one's privilege and  try to understand  other people's condition from their perspective. An occasion to  place yourself in their shoes and feel what they are feeling. Empathy is known to increase helping behaviors. Helping other people appropriately, based on their understanding of their needs and emotions.

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We tried this Priviledge or Equal Rights -exercise (Stepping forward or backward according to the statements) once in my High School. We had a special day for understanding other cultures, minorities etc. This exercise worked very well with students aged 16-18. They were all able to discuss the theme after the exercise and it certainly opened many eyes.

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I would like to agree with two of great importance articles I read in the Value the Difference Resource pack. First and foremost I strongly consent to the idea that culture is like an iceberg. We only see a small part of it which usually has to do with the language, the habits, the traditions etc. However there are a lot of other perceptions and behaviours we do not know. Every culture is a melting pot of other cultures and beliefs as the article mentions. For instance as a dog lover and supporter of animal rights I really like people who take care of a dog or other animal. Although I feel that a large number of Greek people are against animals with multiple ways especially in the suburbs. In my opinion the way we face animals shows many things for our culture. This perception about animals is a non-observable aspect of our culture. This matter is also connected to the terminologies of empathy and open-mindeness two values which have nothing to do with selfishness and insularity. According to Edith Stein empathy is not a teachable skill because it requires experience. Although it can be facilitated.Thus by being animal friendly I develop my empathy and open-mindeness. Additionally enriching my experiences while travelling helps me, too.Not to mention my family's influence through their friendships with Albanian and Russian people or through their great relations with our relatives in Germany. Furthemore a good source for me were and are the books in different language or the movies with different cultural background which familiarise me with multiple and different pictures.
As for my students I am always trying to "borrow" my experiences in order to open their minds but sometimes it is quite difficult due to their backgroung influence. Nevertheless I am going to adapt the activity of "What is privilege"in the way you suggest it and not only this but I will try the "identity and its complexity" activity from the Value the Difference Resource pack in which participants are asked to give up two aspects of their identity and justify their choice. Here is an interesting link about empathy:

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If you think you're hearing the word "empathy" everywhere, you're right. It's now on the lips of scientists and business leaders, education experts and political activists. But there is a vital question that few people ask: How can I expand my own empathic potential? Empathy is not just a way to extend the boundaries of your moral universe. According to new research, it's a habit we can cultivate to improve the quality of our own lives.

But what is empathy? It's the ability to step into the shoes of another person, aiming to understand their feelings and perspectives, and to use that understanding to guide our actions. That makes it different from kindness or pity. And don't confuse it with the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." As George Bernard Shaw pointed out, "Do not do unto others as you would have them do unto you-they might have different tastes." Empathy is about discovering those tastes.

The big buzz about empathy stems from a revolutionary shift in the science of how we understand human nature. The old view that we are essentially self-interested creatures is being nudged firmly to one side by evidence that we are also homo empathicus, wired for empathy, social cooperation, and mutual aid.

Over the last decade, neuroscientists have identified a 10-section "empathy circuit" in our brains which, if damaged, can curtail our ability to understand what other people are feeling. Evolutionary biologists like Frans de Waal have shown that we are social animals who have naturally evolved to care for each other, just like our primate cousins. And psychologists have revealed that we are primed for empathy by strong attachment relationships in the first two years of life.

But empathy doesn't stop developing in childhood. We can nurture its growth throughout our lives-and we can use it as a radical force for social transformation. Research in sociology, psychology, history-and my own studies of empathic personalities over the past 10 years-reveals how we can make empathy an attitude and a part of our daily lives, and thus improve the lives of everyone around us. Here are the Six Habits of Highly Empathic People!

Habit 1: Cultivate curiosity about strangers

Highly empathic people (HEPs) have an insatiable curiosity about strangers. They will talk to the person sitting next to them on the bus, having retained that natural inquisitiveness we all had as children, but which society is so good at beating out of us. They find other people more interesting than themselves but are not out to interrogate them, respecting the advice of the oral historian Studs Terkel: "Don't be an examiner, be the interested inquirer."

Curiosity expands our empathy when we talk to people outside our usual social circle, encountering lives and worldviews very different from our own. Curiosity is good for us too: Happiness guru Martin Seligman identifies it as a key character strength that can enhance life satisfaction. And it is a useful cure for the chronic loneliness afflicting around one in three Americans.

Cultivating curiosity requires more than having a brief chat about the weather. Crucially, it tries to understand the world inside the head of the other person. We are confronted by strangers every day, like the heavily tattooed woman who delivers your mail or the new employee who always eats his lunch alone. Set yourself the challenge of having a conversation with one stranger every week. All it requires is courage.

Habit 2: Challenge prejudices and discover commonalities

We all have assumptions about others and use collective labels-e.g., "Muslim fundamentalist," "welfare mom"-that prevent us from appeciating their individuality. HEPs challenge their own preconceptions and prejudices by searching for what they share with people rather than what divides them. An episode from the history of US race relations illustrates how this can happen.

Claiborne Paul Ellis was born into a poor white family in Durham, North Carolina, in 1927. Finding it hard to make ends meet working in a garage and believing African Americans were the cause of all his troubles, he followed his father's footsteps and joined the Ku Klux Klan, eventually rising to the top position of Exalted Cyclops of his local KKK branch.

In 1971 he was invited-as a prominent local citizen-to a 10-day community meeting to tackle racial tensions in schools, and was chosen to head a steering committee with Ann Atwater, a black activist he despised. But working with her exploded his prejudices about African Americans. He saw that she shared the same problems of poverty as his own. "I was beginning to look at a black person, shake hands with him, and see him as a human being," he recalled of his experience on the committee. "It was almost like bein' born again." On the final night of the meeting, he stood in front of a thousand people and tore up his Klan membership card.

Ellis later became a labor organiser for a union whose membership was 70 percent African American. He and Ann remained friends for the rest of their lives. There may be no better example of the power of empathy to overcome hatred and change our minds.

Habit 3: Try another person's life

So you think ice climbing and hang-gliding are extreme sports? Then you need to try experiential empathy, the most challenging-and potentially rewarding-of them all. HEPs expand their empathy by gaining direct experience of other people's lives, putting into practice the Native American proverb, "Walk a mile in another man's moccasins before you criticize him."

George Orwell is an inspiring model. After several years as a colonial police officer in British Burma in the 1920s, Orwell returned to Britain determined to discover what life was like for those living on the social margins. "I wanted to submerge myself, to get right down among the oppressed," he wrote. So he dressed up as a tramp with shabby shoes and coat, and lived on the streets of East London with beggars and vagabonds. The result, recorded in his book Down and Out in Paris and London, was a radical change in his beliefs, priorities, and relationships. He not only realized that homeless people are not "drunken scoundrels"-Orwell developed new friendships, shifted his views on inequality, and gathered some superb literary material. It was the greatest travel experience of his life. He realised that empathy doesn't just make you good-it's good for you, too.

We can each conduct our own experiments. If you are religiously observant, try a "God Swap," attending the services of faiths different from your own, including a meeting of Humanists. Or if you're an atheist, try attending different churches! Spend your next vacation living and volunteering in a village in a developing country. Take the path favored by philosopher John Dewey, who said, "All genuine education comes about through experience."

Habit 4: Listen hard-and open up

There are two traits required for being an empathic conversationalist.

One is to master the art of radical listening. "What is essential," says Marshall Rosenberg, psychologist and founder of Non-Violent Communication (NVC), "is our ability to be present to what's really going on within-to the unique feelings and needs a person is experiencing in that very moment." HEPs listen hard to others and do all they can to grasp their emotional state and needs, whether it is a friend who has just been diagnosed with cancer or a spouse who is upset at them for working late yet again.

But listening is never enough. The second trait is to make ourselves vulnerable. Removing our masks and revealing our feelings to someone is vital for creating a strong empathic bond. Empathy is a two-way street that, at its best, is built upon mutual understanding-an exchange of our most important beliefs and experiences.

Organizations such as the Israeli-Palestinian Parents Circle put it all into practice by bringing together bereaved families from both sides of the conflict to meet, listen, and talk. Sharing stories about how their loved ones died enables families to realize that they share the same pain and the same blood, despite being on opposite sides of a political fence, and has helped to create one of the world's most powerful grassroots peace-building movements.

Habit 5: Inspire mass action and social change

We typically assume empathy happens at the level of individuals, but HEPs understand that empathy can also be a mass phenomenon that brings about fundamental social change.

Just think of the movements against slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries on both sides of the Atlantic. As journalist Adam Hochschild reminds us, "The abolitionists placed their hope not in sacred texts but human empathy," doing all they could to get people to understand the very real suffering on the plantations and slave ships. Equally, the international trade union movement grew out of empathy between industrial workers united by their shared exploitation. The overwhelming public response to the Asian tsunami of 2004 emerged from a sense of empathic concern for the victims, whose plight was dramatically beamed into our homes on shaky video footage.

Empathy will most likely flower on a collective scale if its seeds are planted in our children. That's why HEPs support efforts such as Canada's pioneering Roots of Empathy, the world's most effective empathy teaching program, which has benefited over half a million school kids. Its unique curriculum centers on an infant, whose development children observe over time in order to learn emotional intelligence-and its results include significant declines in playground bullying and higher levels of academic achievement.

Beyond education, the big challenge is figuring out how social networking technology can harness the power of empathy to create mass political action. Twitter may have gotten people onto the streets for Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring, but can it convince us to care deeply about the suffering of distant strangers, whether they are drought-stricken farmers in Africa or future generations who will bear the brunt of our carbon-junkie lifestyles? This will only happen if social networks learn to spread not just information, but empathic connection.

Habit 6: Develop an ambitious imagination

A final trait of HEPs is that they do far more than empathize with the usual suspects. We tend to believe empathy should be reserved for those living on the social margins or who are suffering. This is necessary, but it is hardly enough.

We also need to empathize with people whose beliefs we don't share or who may be "enemies" in some way. If you are a campaigner on global warming, for instance, it may be worth trying to step into the shoes of oil company executives-understanding their thinking and motivations-if you want to devise effective strategies to shift them towards developing renewable energy. A little of this "instrumental empathy" (sometimes known as "impact anthropology") can go a long way.

Empathizing with adversaries is also a route to social tolerance. That was Gandhi's thinking during the conflicts between Muslims and Hindus leading up to Indian independence in 1947, when he declared, "I am a Muslim! And a Hindu, and a Christian and a Jew."

Organizations, too, should be ambitious with their empathic thinking. Bill Drayton, the renowned "father of social entrepreneurship," believes that in an era of rapid technological change, mastering empathy is the key business survival skill because it underpins successful teamwork and leadership. His influential Ashoka Foundation has launched the Start Empathy initiative, which is taking its ideas to business leaders, politicians and educators worldwide.

The 20th century was the Age of Introspection, when self-help and therapy culture encouraged us to believe that the best way to understand who we are and how to live was to look inside ourselves. But it left us gazing at our own navels. The 21st century should become the Age of Empathy, when we discover ourselves not simply through self-reflection, but by becoming interested in the lives of others. We need empathy to create a new kind of revolution. Not an old-fashioned revolution built on new laws, institutions, or policies, but a radical revolution in human relationships.

Greater Good wants to know: Do you think this article will influence your opinions or behavior?

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If you think you're hearing the word "empathy" everywhere, you're right. It's now on the lips of scientists and business leaders, education experts and political activists. But there is a vital question that few people ask: How can I expand my own empathic potential?

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I teach in the primary school for many years but only this year I realized the importance of empathy in the classroom between teachers and students, the importance of enjoying the school. Every day I met the students who came to school and I could see in their faces different expressions: those who were sleepy, who was afraid, who was angry, who did not want and I wondered how I could entice them to learn, to discover the world; but how could I completely devote myself to them putting aside my thoughts and my concerns. And then, looking at them, I realized: simply a smile, to make them feel good, make them feel safe, to make sure they are open to the experience and to learn. As? I have found his wits to stay together, to be calm and well disposed towards each other.
First in the morning when I meet them at the entrance to the bell rang, I smile: I smile and greet you with a cheery "good morning!", Maybe with a hug if someone holds out his arms to me, a caress, a friendly pat. I greeting each pupil in the eye looking at him, smiling, asking how he is; I look at each one in the eye to make them understand that they are interested in each one, I smile because they show a sincere smile and a friendly face makes everything more pleasant, smile because manifest pleasure that I try to stay together and to devote myself to them. In addition, the smile is "symptom" of joy and happiness is absolutely contagious!
Another little trick is the positive attitude in class. I try to speak gently, to maintain a calm tone even in reproaches, and this helps me to control the anger that sometimes grows.
Another important point is the state of mind of students. Perhaps because I am also a mother and I live both roles, I know how difficult it is for the pupils to go to school and focus if they have little ailments, if they have small needs are difficult to explain, if you do not feel listened to: a pupil with a stomach ache does not manages to be careful, a pupil who has quarreled with her mother is distracted, a child who has listened to a discussion between the parents is therefore concerned none of them are calm and ready to learn. That's why I learned to observe the students especially at the beginning of the day and to reassure them with a voice calm, safe and environmentally friendly; just listen to them because they feel better and address the more serene day, greatly easing the learning process. In fact a calm tone of voice shows that we are willing to communicate and to listen, a confident tone shows that we have been thinking before speaking and the situation is under control, a respectful tone, not aggressive or arrogant, it makes the child safe and we adults more credible: who is strong has no need to shout!
Another gimmick because the pupils are good consists in making compliments; not cloying, unforced but simple and sincere; when the opportunity presents itself, compliment cute hairstyle for the new glasses, for the apron in order, for the healthy snack: the compliments everyone likes and bring in a good mood.
One last trick: to correct errors in the notebooks I use the green and not red pen. My point of view is this: I've always told my students that wrong but you learn to use the red pen to point out the mistakes was to me a contradiction because red means stop, stopping only to highlight the error. Then I tried using another logic: if the situation should serve to improve, so to understand the error not to repeat it and move on because they do not use the green pen? As in traffic lights: red means "stand still" while the green allows you to move forward and reach the goal.

In the web I found this article. I wanted to ask the Danish members of this course it is true that you have an hour a week of empathy in school called Klassens Tid ... I am very curious. I wish I could figure out what type of well structured and organized activities are proposed. Thank you.

http://www.nostrofiglio.it/bambino/bambino-6-14-anni/a-scuola-di-empatia-in-danimarca-si-impara-in-classe-a-mettersi-nei-panni-del-prossimo

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I started developping my empathy when i started visiting other countries under Erasmus+ projects, getting to know other cultures, views, situations in other countries.I would like to develop my students' empathy. I always try to put them in the position or a situation we are discussing, usually with role playing, but i think it's not enough. They get emotionally charged during, but forget about it a few days later. Need sth more sustainable

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Thank you for all this things! I
I think that it's essential  to develop empathiy in our society. Smartphone and consumistic way of life are enemies of umanity and emphaty.

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Thanks for the video about privilege. It really makes the subject clear and makes you think. I think empathy is something you can develop. I'm a very emphatic person and I think it is because ever since I learned to read I have red a lot of books and when you are reading you have to imagine yourself in the place of the character in the book. That develops empathy. As mentioned above I think films and drama are also very good methods of developing empathy. I also agree with Daniele from Italy that arrow-mindedness and discrimination come from ignorance. People who have lived all their life in one place and never had actual positive contact with people from other cultures are more likely to have a lot of prejudices and more likely to be racist. As people are exposed to members of different cultures these prejudices usually go away. Traveling and living abroad increases open-mindedness. We just have to create possibilities for children to develop their open-mindedness in school also.

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Actually emphaty is really hard and may be impossible. We can't do really and exactly. But may be we try to understand. Privilege is very important problem in society. For being open-mindness we have to break mental prejudices. If we help the pupils and their families we learn their lives, their stories so we empathize.

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Regarding empathy, please find below a video that you could easily put in parallel with the sequence about emotions. After working on emotions and watching the video, I would ask my students to write an "emotion diary" in which they would describe social situations where they witnessed people expressing emotions and how they decoded them.
Regarding the privilege activity, I would adapt it as suggested by giving character cards to students. But I would try to give each student a character card from a different country also to show them inequities in the world and explain that it is important not to judge but to understand each other's background. I would also link privileges and emotions by asking them how to feel when they are privileged or not.

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In my class I like practising the brainstorming activity, so with my students we choose a topic , very often a social issue and at the end of brainstorming we have the opportunity to discuss and share opinions. Also role -playing activities are useful to develop empathy.

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It 'very interesting this video.I'm an empathic person.I try to develop in my classroom a positive and peaceful atmosphere without diversity.I  try not to notice the disability and to enhance the openness of mind in my student and their families.

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I think I’m a very empathic person thanks to my education and my love for arts and literature. Working with immigrants and people with disabilities enhance my empathy. I try to develop my students empathy with role-playing activities, films and interesting reading.

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Thanks for sharing "What is privilege" video. It is a very interesting video.
It was a very touching video and it made me reflect about diversity and empathy in my classes.

Of course I’ll need to adapt these activities with primary school children.

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My students are open-minded. I try to develop their empathy by showing them different ways of living and explaining them that we must respect diversity. We can develop open-mindedness by showing our students videos about different traditions and cultures.

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I suggest you to read the following essay, based on empathy, that perfectly summarizes my opinion about the topic.
I hope you will find it as interesting as I did.

http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1042&context=community_resources

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Silena P. - Italy                      In order to develop empathy and responsibility it is necessary to enhance the ability to detect the needs of others, to perceive their needs. You have to feel within yourself their suffering, because this compassion will move you to do something to alleviate their pain. You will strive to use your resources to do something, whatever it is possible. You will also ask others to take charge of their well-being. In a welcoming context, in class, you can discuss, for example, on the topic of mutual giving. You can start a cooperative teaching program. You can use role playing to understand how the other feels. We enter their world, watch the world through their eyes, we approach the others with sensitivity and tact. I liked a lot the video on privilege, because this activity develops attention towards the others and students can appreciate the value of the rights and legality.

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Silena P. - Italy                      In order to develop empathy and responsibility it is necessary to enhance the ability to detect the needs of others, to perceive their needs. You have to feel within yourself their suffering, because this compassion will move you to do something to alleviate their pain. You will strive to use your resources to do something, whatever it is possible. You will also ask others to take charge of their well-being. In a welcoming context, in class, you can discuss, for example, on the topic of mutual giving. You can start a cooperative teaching program. You can use role playing to understand how the other feels. We enter their world, watch the world through their eyes, we approach the others with sensitivity and tact. I liked a lot the video on privilege, because this activity develops attention towards the others and students can appreciate the value of the rights and legality.

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2.5 Valentina Confido, Italy - Developing Empathy

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2.5 Valentina Confido, Italy - Developing Empathy

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This was one of the points I appreciated most. Empathy is the element that can make a difference when speaking of multicultural classes. My students are performing (in this very moment) a project based on bullying issues (simulation of a trial), and in the past weeks, while reharsing for the final performance, some of them started crying, just because they cannot guess how this can happen (physical and psychological violence on a 12 year old girl) or they saw themselves in some of the bullying attitudes (without even realizing that). So, I suppose some of my students are more empathic than I thought... As for "What is Privilege?", I would love to show it to my students and to carry out a similar experiment.. It is the perfect way to make a general idea into a visual and physical representation (which is definitely more shocking than words). But I'll have to strongly adapt this project to the age and social background of my middle school students. Questions have to necessarily be changed!