Roots of Empathy (REO) is the elementary school program you may have heard about that uses babies as teachers to show children how to relate emotionally to one another, instilling a base of empathy that will carry them through their lives and build a more compassionate society. What you might not know is that the world-wide program was piloted in two Toronto schools in 1996, with only 150 students.  To say it has caught on would be an understatement. From its humble beginnings, to spreading out across Canada and obtaining charity status in 2000, it now involves over eighteen hundred classrooms in over 1200 schools in nine provinces and has also been exported to the United States, New Zealand and the Isle of Man.

The success of the publicly and privately funded program is secured by an endorsement from the Dalai Lama, who upon meeting founder Mary Gordon at a public dialogue in Vancouver in 2006 commented that it could build world peace. Recently, ROE has been featured in Time Magazine, on Fox News and the Huffington Post. Mary Gordon's book, Roots of Empathy: Changing the World Child by Child, is a national best-seller. The program is about to launch in Ireland and Germany. Mary Gordon is a Member of the Order of Canada and the first female Canadian Ashoka Fellow.

Of all the potential highlights -- the media attention, the validation from important figures, the keynote speeches around the world, the international growth, the accolades and awards -- Mary Gordon cites as her standout the simple experiences she's had of watching the school children learn from and interact with the babies. "My favourite moments are not big dramatic ones," she says over the phone from ROE headquarters at Don Mills and Eglinton, "they are the very personal ones that happen with children around the green blanket."

The green blanket is the universal symbol for the program. A mother and her child visit a classroom every three weeks during the school year to teach children how to understand and name their feelings and those of others, to find their own confident voices, to be kind, and to refrain from cruel or bullying behavior.  Babies are chosen from the community, reflecting its diversity and are ages 2 or 4 months to allow the maximum amount of physical and ability changes over the course of the year. The child is placed on the blanket given a toy to play with; the children welcome him/her with a song and then observe, ask and answer questions about the stage the baby is at, and talk about what the baby is doing, possibly thinking and needing. In between there are preparation lessons, and a post-mortem where children write and draw pictures that reflect their impressions of the visits. ROE crosses all disciplines of curriculum allowing teachers to incorporate language skills, math, science, social studies, art and music.  The program works at four classroom levels; Kindergarten, Grades 1-3, Grades 4-6 and Grades 7-8. Heartened by the effectiveness of ROE over the years, Mary Gordon founded Seeds of Empathy in 2005, for younger children in early childhood settings.

"You can't preach or teach empathy," says Gordon, "It can't be taught but can be caught. Children catch it by watching it. A baby is completely non-threatening. Watching the baby and parent interact gives children positive experiential opportunities. They learn perspective taking which is a prerequisite for any conflict resolution."

Gordon believes ROE has the capacity to change patterns of violence and generations of poor parenting which she has seen first-hand in her many years as a teacher and educator. By extension then, she believes it can change societies. "It transcends language and culture, and history," she says.

Her interest in social justice was fostered at a young age at the kitchen table. Her parents insisted she and her siblings save money for the needy and her mother was the go-to person for just-released prisoners needing a hot, home cooked meal. Gordon would be made to keep them company while they ate.  She worked for many years as an elementary school teacher, and in 1981, sensing a need within families; she developed the Parenting and Family Literacy Centres that have become public policy in Ontario. From that work -- sowing the seeds of emotional literacy with parents and their children in the home -- the idea for a baby-as-teacher learning program was born.

Studies and reviews of ROE show that the program not only works in the moment with the children, but continues to impact their lives and behavior at home and in public.

Mary Gordon, however, has one more way to measure success. "What makes me happiest is to see the artwork," she say, describing a picture a boy has drawn of a mother singing to her baby.

Her tone changes from the seriousness of her program's objective, potential and success to the delight that comes from spending a good deal of time with children. "He's tapped into the love bond of momma and baby."

Carla Lucchetta is a Toronto based writer and TV producer.