WARSAW — Warsaw Community Schools wants children kids to be successful and happy, but stirring new research says we may be missing what matters most in helping kids thrive: Empathy! Teens today are 40 percent less empathetic than they were just a generation ago; narcissism has increased 58 percent. Empathy can be cultivated in children even before they can talk. Parents will learn compelling research which explains how to impart this key skill to our kids.

Culled from 30 years of research and traveling the world to find the best solutions, Dr. Michele Borba shares why empathy is a skill that is vital for children’s mental health, resilience, leadership skills and job success – inspiring stories of successful, happy kids who are also kind, moral, courageous and resilient (and how their parents helped raised them).

Parents, caregivers, teachers and community members will learn dozens of easy ways to help children and teens learn simple habits that cultivate empathy and instill kindness, courage and confidence. Dr. Borba’s revolutionary new framework for nurturing empathy from her latest book, UnSelfie, is a call to action to transform the way we parent. Empathetic kids will thrive in the future, but the seeds of success must be planted today – one empathetic habit at a time.

This session will show those essential steps and dozens of ways to nurture them in children from toddler to teen.

Warsaw Community Schools will host Dr. Borba for all of WCS teachers, faculty and staff during the day on Tuesday, Aug. 15, at the celebratory opening day for the 2017-2018 school year and invite all parents and the community to join at 6 p.m. Tuesday evening in the WCHS Performing Arts Center.

Dr. David Hoffert, Superintendent and Warsaw Community Schools encourages all parents and the community to join him and WCS families as we learn side by side to create a new empathetic culture among our students to create a “peer-cruelty” free zone where all students thrive this school year. This training is possible through a grant from the Kosciusko County Community Foundation focusing on student wellness and mental health.