A short essay on empathy, drama, and a new curriculum

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay proposes that it is time to redesign educational curricula to take account of recent discoveries in the neuroscience of the human brain. The identification of mirror neurons has drawn attention to the importance of empathy as a determiner of action and their function is replicated in communication between actors, characters, and audiences. Brecht's epic theatre aesthetic enables the framing of empathy in a way that sets it in an historical context. This process I term critical empathy; the basis for a new curriculum grounded in narrative strategies that put drama at their core.