Making Caring Common: Teaching Youth Empathy
By Dr. Paul Wood
I came across a study run by Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education about what kids think is important, and believe that it highlights the need to teach youth skills like empathy, thoughtfulness and resilience. The Making Caring Common Project surveyed 10,000 students from 33 schools in the US, and found that 80% of participating children said that high achievement and happiness were the most important things to them. Only 19% said that their parents viewed ‘caring’ as an important trait.
The belief by youth that high accomplishment will lead to happiness and a successful life, may ignite drive to achieve, but it does not enable them the skills to deal with stress, fear of failure, and disappointment – all things we meet on the journey that is life. What happens when kids hit bumps in the road that challenge their idea of success? What happens when they fail, or are told that their efforts are “not good enough”?
Youth should be taught to view success in life as something that includes achievement, but does not exceed the ability to accept themselves and develop positive relationships with the people around them. As adults we need to ensure that the next generation is not so focused on the allure of recognition, fame and money, but are equipped with the ability to live highly fulfilling lives.