ROCK Course Descriptions

Understanding Empathy, Compassion, and Kindness will cover a range of information and activities that will both inform students’ understanding of the topics and deepen the practices of such within students’ own lives. Students will explore, write about, and practice these topics in many ways. HUM 1020 Student Learning Outcomes include the following:

• Identify the ways in which various modes and genres of human cultural production (esp. literary works and film) represent and engage with chosen themes, problems, or aspects of human existence.
• Interpret human cultural production within the contexts of chosen themes, problems, or aspects of human existence.
• Employ strategies of critical analysis to uncover meaning in multiple modes and genres of cultural production. 
• Understand the similarities and differences of kindness, compassion, and empathy and how these principles operate in one’s personal life and in the greater world.
• Engage in a service-learning project and demonstrate the growth and learning that occurred as a result of engaging in this project. (Wilson)

This course is meant to deepen students’ understanding of empathy, compassion, and kindness and how these concepts operate both within the self and in the greater world. With a deep focus on compassion— for the self and outwardly—students will learn how compassion operates in their own lives, how to cultivate self-compassion, and how to practice compassion toward others. Students will engage in a compassion-based service learning project, which will count toward FGCU’s service-learning requirement During and after this class, students should do the following:

• Discover that self-compassion is a critical component to a healthy, productive life
• Develop inner awareness and use that knowledge as a lens to view the world and individual actions
• Connect and communicate with the self in meaningful ways
• Understand how compassion (or lack thereof) operates in society
• Incorporate active, outwardly compassion into everyday life Understanding Empathy, Compassion, and Kindness will cover a range of information and activities that will both inform students’ understanding of the topics and deepen the practices of such within students’ own lives.

Students will explore, write about, and practice these topics, and upon the completion of the semester, students will have successfully completed a compassion-based service-learning project. HUM 1020 Student Learning Outcomes To complete this course successfully, students will be able to do all of the following:

• Identify the ways in which various modes and genres of human cultural production (esp. literary works and film) represent and engage with chosen themes, problems, or aspects of human existence.
• Interpret human cultural production within the contexts of chosen themes, problems, or aspects of human existence.
• Employ strategies of critical analysis to uncover meaning in multiple modes and genres of cultural production.(Griffin)

Through the humanities lens, students explore what history and literature say about compassion, consider various cultures and societies, examine what philosophy and science say about compassionate humans, and interrogate how we (humans) may learn to care. Students contemplate relationships, the collective experience, the logic of indifference (is indifference ever a logical choice?), civic cooperation, equity, coexistence, interconnectedness, interdependence, ecological citizenship, story and myth, and being human. Please select a journal specifically for this course. Weekly journal activities will support reflections assignments throughout this course and will help you develop content for your final project. Choosing to be present in the moment will help you successfully navigate this course. Situating ourselves within several different disciplines, we will spiritedly discuss and interrogate the compassion ideal, as we examine what’s happening in our community and in the human collective. (Lynn)

This course will allow students to explore the concepts of kindness, compassion, and empathy (k/c/e) through the lens of service. Students will learn the foundational concepts (k/c/e) and then actively apply these concepts with their service partner: Young Five students at San Carlos Park Elementary. (Griffin)

Students will explore how to build a compassionate parenting model by applying concepts related to compassion, empathy, and kindness to the existing parenting categories delineated by Diane Baumrind. They will examine the characteristics of a compassionate child and how raising compassionate children would have a positive impact on society by lessening prejudice, preventing intergroup conflict and promoting solidarity.

Explore how nature expresses compassion, examine what science says about compassionate human beings, diversity, and biodiversity. Work with local middle school students on projects promoting compassion, empathy & kindness. Objectives: 

• Students will examine how kindness, empathy, and compassion relate to everyday experiences.
• Students will engage in service-learning experience(s) to explore the real-life application (both personal and societal) of newly gained perspectives and knowledge related to community engagement and active citizenship.
• Students will adapt course themes and materials, so they are suited for and relatable to middle school students.
• Students will write a paper to analyze the linkages between learning about and engaging in service-learning related to kindness, empathy, and compassion.  (Fortin)

Increasing research points to the social, physical and psychological benefits of kindness. Can your life be changed by it? This class studies the effect of kindness on individuals and society. Kindness is one of the building blocks for a civil society. Research reveals that the United States is suffering from a kindness deficit. In this course, we will explore the nature of kindness and review the research and science developing around kindness. Through reflections and exercises, we will explore kindness as a challenge and an opportunity in our own lives. This class focuses on three main learning goals – and has fun doing them. First, we will study the science of kindness and its impact on the social, psychological and emotional well-being of those who practice it. The first thing we will examine is self-compassion and its impact. Second, we will participate in a series of kindness challenges that will allow you to see the impact of kindness first-hand and push you to empathize with people in different ways. Third, you will work on a larger kindness project. A final project will include a paper and presentation. (Donlan)

Course Themes: Coexistence Interconnectedness Compassion Survival of the fittest, or, of the most compassionate? In this course students explore how nature demonstrates compassion, examine what science says about compassionate humans, and interrogate how we (humans) may learn to care. Students contemplate the concept of Place, relationships, the logic of indifference (is indifference ever a logical choice?), cultural cognition theory, collective consciousness, civic cooperation, inequality, zero sum games vs. N zero sum games, ecological citizenship, and, being human. Please select a journal specifically for this course, and plan to bring it to each class session. Weekly journal activities will support reflections assignments throughout this course and will help you develop content for your final project. This course features an integrated service-learning component. Students will be working with a local middle school in various capacities and roles based on their individual interests and will explore ideas and create supporting materials for service-learning engagements. (Lynn)

• “Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.” ~ Charter for Compassion
• “Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.” ~ Dalai Lama
• “Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself.” ~ Mohsin Hamid
• “Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” ~ Scott Adams (Roca)