Around 40 high school students from Bosnia and Hercegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia gathered online on 16 December 2020 to discuss empathy as a key skill that needs to be learned within the Council of Europe’s competences for democratic culture.

An award-winning communications professional, book author, educator and consultant Dr. Nikolaos Dimitriadis provided a neuroscience perspective to empathy. He spoke with students about why humans are social animals, the different types of empathy and how to implement them in one’s personal life.

But why talk about empathy at this very moment in time? We are in midst of a pandemic that has forced many students to learn from home, to stop greeting each other with hugs, and who are no longer able to see each other’s faces when wearing face masks etc. Social media and technology paradoxically connect people more than ever, and yet we feel more disconnected than ever. Discussions centered on empathy deficit, species evolution and neuroscience in order to prove that deep connectivity is what makes us human. Students engaged in these interactive discussions by asking questions and providing examples from school lockdowns learning and socialising experiences.

The chatroom was a part of the series of online events gathering high school from the region to discuss various topics related to democratic school culture. The first chatroom of 10 December, hosted by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Horizontal Facility action on “Quality education for all”, discussed human rights and values on the occasion of marking the International Human Rights Day. The second chatroom of 14 December, hosted by Serbia’s Horizontal Facility action on “Quality education for all”, explored Competences for Democratic Culture in an online learning environment.

The event was organised within the framework of the joint European Union/Council of Europe programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022” and its action “Quality education for all” in Montenegro.