Less Reading = Less Empathy

“The research, led by Sara H. Konrath of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and published online in August in ‘Personality and Social Psychology Review’, found that college students’ self-reported empathy has declined since 1980, with an especially steep drop in the past 10 years. To make matters worse, during this same period students’ self-reported narcissism has reached new heights, according to research by Jean M. Twenge, a psychologist at San Diego State University.” ~~ Article in Scientific American, What, Me Care? Young Are Less Empathetic

I stumbled across this article while researching another subject.  It reminded me of a conversation I had with my Canadian friend, Le Canuck, who lives in Memphis.  I was there Continue reading “Less Reading = Less Empathy”

Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #8,958

yeah I know you did not ask!

After scanning the news headlines this morning I decided there are two courses that should be required in every high school. The first, Civics, so people have some general sense about how our government should function.

The second course would be Civility.  Reading about people misbehaving so badly in businesses that have reopened in the middle of this pandemic it seems many folks are lacking in basic manners. I keep thinking of one of my Mother’s pet peeves that she strove mightily to drive into core of her 5 sons…with varying degrees of success, CFOP.  Which stands for Consideration For Other People.  If she caught you in a faux pas in this regard she had a whole spiel she would launch into wherein the acronym CFOP was repeated an amazing number of times.

Just for good measure a few semesters of US and World History would not hurt also.