I've noticed that a lot of childrens stories, no matter their main plot, seem to boil down to the MC learning to understand others feelings. But it seems that while there is a certain age frame children are suppose to learn empathy in, some learn to be understanding much earlier or much later? I was just wondering if ten or eleven would be too old realistically for a character to still have troubles with this idea? Of course, I guess they could also partly understand it but not really care if they hurt anyone, in sort of a detached way? I know social intelligence can be hard to learn if you're not given the right environment to test cause and effect...
If ten or eleven were too old realistically for a character to have trouble with the idea of empathy, why would there be bullying in high school, hazing on sports teams, and bosses who treat their employees like crap? It's a variable. Also, some people can do 'empathy' for people just like themselves, but have no interest in the struggles of people they perceive as 'different'.
Which is why so many charity appeals work on the ol' 'what if someone
just like you was suffering, in need, etc? What if this had happened in
your town?"
Look at the adults who see a problem and declare, "Why don't those people just ... That's what
I would do!"
So many stories promote empathy because it needs to be reinforced, and expanded.
In some ways, that's the purpose of fiction in general, to explore what people would do in different circumstances, to let us play 'let's pretend' with a fictional life.