“I’ve got a teaching position for you.”
Dr. Maria Roca, PhD, is the Director of the Roots of Compassion and Kindness (ROCK) Center at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) in Fort Myers, Florida. Launched in 2020, ROCK promotes compassion, kindness, and empathy through education, action, and research. One important project of the center is teaching undergraduates the value of kindness.
If you’ve been under the proverbial rock and heard nothing about the value of empathy, compassion, and kindness… you can join the university students in discussing the insights of scholars from many disciplines, including psychology and neuroscience, and then share what you learned with elementary and middle school students through age-appropriate, fun and interactive activities. ROCK courses have a service learning component partnering with local schools to grow compassion at the roots through this intergenerational exchange.
In my storytelling courses, I teach students how to tell oral stories as a powerful means of creating connection and community, but secretly I teach story-listening. In my classroom, if there is one person telling a story, there are at least 20 others listening. Often when we think we are powerless to help someone, the most powerful thing we can do is sit and listen to their story. To simply witness and absorb someone’s story is a powerful act of kindness (and healing). An unconscious message is transmitted: “You are not alone.” For some students, to have others listen with appreciation, transforms their confidence with an inner mantra, “My story matters.”
When was the last time you truly listened to someone?
When was the last time that someone deeply listened to you?
Dr. Roca is also a member of the International Listening Association (ILA), and we had a deep conversation about the power of listening. She joked that at their conventions, they just sit around and listen. Our follow-up conversations took several beautiful turns. I pondered the logistics of teaching for ROCK with my current commitment to the art and craft of oral storytelling.
It didn’t take long before I said,
“YES! I want to be a ROCK Star.”
Read more about the ROCK Center and watch the video by the faculty: