Can you teach empathy and compassion? If you are a parent, the answer is yes. As a parent, you teach empathy and compassion to your children by the example of treating them with empathy and compassion; and in involving them in acts of compassion in the care for others. I believe caring for a pet in the home is one of the traditional ways of helping children learn empathy and compassion. Another is family participation in volunteerism and community-betterment projects.

Can you teach empathy and compassion to medical students as a university course? Medical schools are willing to try, and are hiring actors to train doctors good bedside manners when they have to give bad news. "A lot of these medical students are brainiacs who can absorb all the information they learn in class, but they don't know how to talk to people,'' says Joshua Stager, program coordinator at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York.

I think that is an over-generalization, and slightly less-than-generous statement in reference to the character and demeanor of all medical students -- but then again -- if you have watched the television show House, maybe a course in bedside manner is a very good thing for some medical students. Medical schools see enough of a need for education in empathy and compassion they are requiring these classes as part of medical training. Interestingly, a new section of a medical student's national licensing exam now includes tests on bedside manner.