Learning Empathy
It doesn’t take a college degree to learn this life skill
“They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
— Carl W. Buehner, 1971
Commencement may signify the ending of one phase of education, but it’s a beginning of a new phase of life for the graduates — hence, the use of a word from the Latin, cominitiare, to initiate.
That new phase isn’t an ending of education, but rather the beginning of additional knowledge that extends beyond the pages of a book or the walls of a classroom.
“Education never ends, Watson. It is a series of lessons with the greatest for the last.”
— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1911
As we continue our look at some commencement speeches that matter,1 this one comes from my alma mater, Boston University, where alumna Emily Deschanel spoke last month.
Her message — one about empathy — comes at a particularly appropriate time.
