Dalai Lama Centre // Educate the Heart

When a child is born we do everything we can to protect them, nurture the, love them a child's heart and mind are fragile as they grow we want to teach them everything we know we send them to school to fill their minds with wonderful knowledge to give them the tools they need for life at school they get a taste of how things are like in the world outside there is friendship, romance, disappointment, embarrassment discrimination and bullying But are tools we give them enough to prepare them for this world? We have an enourmous responsibility and an amazing opportunity If we truly want to prepare them for the world outside we must also educate the heart because to navigate the world outside with compassion, acceptance and tolerance we need to teach them compassion, acceptance and tolerance this can begin in our schools, and it can start today it can happen in hockey practice, in dance class and day camps music lessons and is already happening around the world with astonishing results if we want our children to grow into socially and emotionally capable young people we must ask for a balanced education that puts importance on educating both the mind and the heart A landmark study of over 270,000 students found that social and emotional learning programs strenghen social and emotional skills and improve overall attitudes and behaviours They also saw an increase of academic scores by 11 percent Prepare the for this world. Educate the heart.