Education has a crucial role in creating a society that can deal with the critical issues children face today. The authors offer a comprehensive rationale and vision for compassionate schools that embody love in action. They explore the practical implementation of the golden rule through the curriculum, particularly SMSC and PSHE, thus responding to Karen Armstrong's challenge in her TED talk of 2009: `If we don't manage to implement the golden rule globally so that we treat all peoples, wherever and whoever they may be, as though they were as important as ourselves, I doubt we will have a viable world to hand on to the next generation'.

Education policymakers and teachers will find in this book an overview by Gilroy Brown, John Lloyd, Tamara Russell, Tiago Tatton-Ramos, David Woods and Maurice Coles of what would have to change to instil compassion in schools and what has been found to work. And Mick Waters argues for a world-class compassionate curriculum and advocates the international application of the United Nations Rights of the Child which, if 'properly embraced by nations ... would ensure a compassionate curriculum... worldwide'.