Babies are the “tiny teachers” in a popular elementary school program known as Roots of Empathy (ROE).

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Since being introduced in Nova Scotia in 2003-04, it’s attracted many admirers and that was exemplified, once again, in a recent CBC Ideas episode on the “battle over empathy,” produced by University of King’s College professor Pauline Daikin.

Bringing babies (two to four months old) and their mothers to class is touching and heartwarming. It’s also part of a larger social justice project championed by Roots of Empathy with a mission to “build caring, peaceful and civil societies through the development of empathy” in kids and their teachers.

What sounds, on the surface, to be a positive, harmless experience is now, according to the episode, being lumped together by vocal critics with a whole range of “empathy” ventures.

It all started when Montreal-born Yale professor Paul Bloom created a stir in 2016 by publishing Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion. In the book, he challenged the prevailing orthodoxy.

Many........

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