The Empathy Project.
“We need to focus less on reading words and more on reading people.
True education is the ability to understand another human being.”
- Tami Rae Weiss, PhD
For the past several years, Dr. Tami Rae Weiss has been researching and sharing her work with arts integration as a means of teaching and learning empathy. She emphasizes an untaught literacy in schools which is of most importance: aesthetic literacy, which Weiss describes as “the language of lived experience.” Weiss promotes aesthetic literacy as integral to education, where students communicate and find meaning through the use of images, sounds, tastes, smells, and emotions - each of which we can learn to “read.”
Dr. Weiss’s “Feeling Faces” instructional resources have been used by early childhood educators and parents to help children learn compassion, empathy, and regulation of one’s emotions. Weiss emphasizes that facial expressions are a “universal language of emotion” which can instantly communicate joy, sadness, fear, anger, etc. Moreover, learning to “read” facial expressions is essential to compassion and empathy. Dr. Weiss’s book and poster designs include photographs of children’s faces and illustrations of whimsical cartoons, providing a fun and engaging way for children to identify and label feelings as a means of cultivating empathy.
Multimedia Keynote Presentation.
In 2018, Dr. Tami Rae Weiss was selected as the Keynote speaker for the regional Early Childhood Conference in Wisconsin, sharing her multimedia presentation: “Beads and Breakdancing: Understanding Empathy Through the Arts.” Weiss’s “Feeling Faces” designs were featured throughout the conference, as seen on conference posters, videos and t-shirts.
Weiss and Yarrow (2016).
Anti-bullying program with Peter Yarrow.
As part of her goals and work to promote the arts as essential to personal well-being and cultural change, Dr. Weiss collaborated with Peter Yarrow (of legendary music group Peter, Paul, and Mary) on his “Operation Respect” anti-bullying program.
Weiss developed a multimedia presentation from her work with local school teachers to teach empathy in and through the arts. The presentation included photographs of their students non-verbal responses via facial expressions to the question, "What does it feel like to be bullied?” From there, Weiss worked with Yarrow to incorporate a photographic slideshow into his live performance of the song, “Don’t Laugh at Me.” The end result was a very powerful and moving production.
Poster and Book Cover Designs for the Empathy Project.
Poster Design (© Weiss, 2018).
Poster Design, "Zones of Regulation" (© Weiss, 2019).
Poster Design (© Weiss, 2018). Published for the 2018 Early Childhood Education Conference.
Book cover design, "I'm Feeling..." (© Weiss, 2017).
Poster Design, "Feelings" (© Weiss, 2017).
FACE Your Feelings.
(© Tami Rae Weiss, PhD, 2018)
