I want to welcome Carol Knox to the Empathy Movement Curriculum Project

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Edwin Rutsch

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May 26, 2026, 8:51:55 PM (10 days ago) May 26

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Empathy Movement Curriculum Project
https://sites.google.com/view/empathy-movement-curriculum

Greetings

I want to welcome Carol Knox to the Empathy Movement Curriculum Project. I’m including Carols message to me since I feel she expresses so well the importance of this project. I made an info graphic of it as well.

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Carol Knox
Global Learning Architect | Micro‑Course Creator | AI Fluency & Digital‑Safety Specialist | Cross‑Cultural Corporate Trainer | ETQA Quality Assurer | Maritime Training Accreditation | Scriptwriter & Communication Coach

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Hi Edwin, thanks so much for the mail. I do hope I can join, I sometimes have time zones challenges.

To answer your questions, here is some input:

I am keen to help create an empathy curriculum because empathy and active listening are the foundation of how I work with people. My top character strength is Kindness, and it shows up in the way I listen, teach, and support learners — especially in my ESL and communication work, where active listening is essential for confidence, clarity, and language development.

A shared empathy curriculum matters, (as you said) because so much training is locked behind paywalls, which limits access and keeps the work fragmented. Empathy should be a public resource, not a privilege. A common framework would give communities, educators, and facilitators a shared language and a shared starting point.

My background in curriculum design — from micro courses to digital safety and communication training — means I have experience turning complex ideas into accessible, human centred learning pathways. I want to bring that experience into a project that is open, collaborative, and widely available.

Empathy and active listening are also urgently needed in contested conservation spaces, including human–baboon conflict in Cape Town. These are environments where fear, frustration, coexistence, and control collide. People stop listening to each other, positions harden, and conflict escalates. An empathy curriculum could help stakeholders hear one another’s values, reduce polarisation, and support more constructive dialogue.

In conservation, as in education, empathy is not a soft skill — it is a practical tool for rebuilding trust and navigating complexity.
This is why I want to contribute: to help create something accessible, grounded, and genuinely useful for anyone working in difficult human relationships — from classrooms to communities to conservation.

I look forward to finding out more.

Best wishes
Carol