Purpose: This study aims to consider the role of emotions, especially those related to empathy, in promoting a more humane education that enables students to reach out across kinship chasms to promote the development of communities predicated on a shared value on mutual respect. This attention to empathy includes a review of the rational basis for much schooling, introduces skepticism about the façade of rational thinking, reviews the emotionally flat character of classrooms, attends to the emotional dimensions of literacy education, argues on behalf of taking emotions into account in developmental theories and links empathic connections with social justice efforts. The study's main thrust is that empathy is a key emotional quality that does not come naturally or easily to many, yet is important to cultivate if social justice is a goal of education. Design/methodology/approach: The author clicked Essay and Conceptual Paper. Yet the author required to write the research design. Findings: The author clicked Essay and Conceptual Paper. Yet the author required to write the research design. Research limitations/implications: The author clicked Essay and Conceptual Paper. Yet the author required to write the research design. Originality/value: The paper challenges the rational emphasis of schooling and argues for more attention to the ways in which emotions shape thinking.