TEDxGoldenGateEd

The GGSC and Prospect Sierra school are co-sponsoring this TEDx event on compassion in education, exploring why compassion is so important, how we can nurture it, and why it’s essential to preparing our students for life in the 21st century.


  • Venue: Craneway Pavillion
  • Date: June 11, 2011, 1-9pm

Join us to explore humanity’s stickiest idea: Compassion. A diverse line-up of speakers will explore the essential place that compassion holds throughout K-12 education. In true TED fashion, we promise a full day of inspiration, insight, interaction, and delight as we learn about the new science of compassion and see how compassion helps transform schools and communities.

What will make the day truly groundbreaking is its fusion of education and cutting-edge science. It will feature illuminating scientific discoveries, practical strategies for building compassion, and plenty of inspiration—not just from educators and researchers but from entrepreneurs, artists, and other agents of social change. Some speakers will draw upon the latest research from neuroscience and developmental psychology to show how schools can nurture compassion; others will reveal how compassion builds bridges to faraway people and places. Some teach compassion explicitly; some do creative and ground-breaking work that is deeply informed by compassion.

Click here for the full list of speakers.

Who Should Attend?

We are hoping to attract a diverse audience of educators, education leaders, parents, and others who support the important link between compassion and education. To find out how to participate, please click here.

Why Teach Compassion?

Compassion—the devotion to enhancing the welfare of others—is humanity’s stickiest idea. Compassion is at the heart of the world’s ethical and spiritual traditions. Now, a new science is revealing humans to be a compassionate and caring species; the emotion is embedded in our genes and the structure of our brains.

Are we entering into an era of compassion? In today’s schools, the ability to imagine the needs of others, to think compassionately, and to design, innovate, and act in ways that benefit others are true 21st century skills.

This event is co-sponsored by the GGSC and Prospect Sierra school.