Giving Compass' Take:

• Empatico uses video-conferencing and interactive lesson plans to connect students around the world with the goal of creating empathy that transcends borders and cultures. 

• How can adults be similarly engaged in empathy-building exchanges? How can empathy be better incorporated into all classrooms? 

• Read about ways to teach empathy in the classroom.

As a Mexican immigrant and the son of a Holocaust survivor, KIND Healthy Snacks founder and CEO Daniel Lubetzky has always considered diversity, inclusion, and empathy to be vitally important character traits. His solution, which launched in October 2017, is called Empatico: It’s a free video-conferencing and digital learning platform, with interactive lesson plans designed to connect students around the globe, to build empathy between different people and different cultures.

The setup is basic: Teachers just need a computer with a camera and internet connection. The goal is for educators in different parts of the globe to log on, and complete the same activities at the same time. There are group exercises designed around learning more about your local weather or geography through some basic mapping, and how culture influences the way people interact with their environments. Each group of students can then connect with another classroom somewhere else, so that kids learn from other kids firsthand about what’s the same or different.

Lubetzky’s goal is to reach at least 1 million students by 2020. That means offering the service in other languages–a Spanish translation should roll out this April–and eventually overcoming language barriers through the addition of simultaneous translation, which Empatico has begun to explore. The service is also available to kids clubs and afterschool programs, which may boost participation in 2018.

Read the full article about Empatico by Ben Paynter at FastCompany.