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Kind Kids Lead to Healthier Communities
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Greater Good
Posted: December 27th, 2015
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/kind_kids_lead_...
Skills like kindness, cooperation, and empathy are sometimes dismissed as soft skills in education. Developing hard skills like math and reading can seem far more practical and important - hence our education systems rigorous focus on teaching and testing them. But [a] recent study, published last month in the American Journal of Public Health, turns that thinking on its head. After following hundreds of students from kindergarten through early adulthood, the study suggests that possessing those soft skills is key to doing well in school and avoiding some major problems afterwards. Neglecting these skills could pose a threat to public health and safety. Importantly, these findings held true regardless of the students gender, race, or socioeconomic status, the quality of their neighborhood, their early academic skills, or several other factors. Those who were rated as more pro-social in kindergarten were more likely to succeed. In some cases, kids kindness was more strongly related to certain outcomes later in life than were other factors that might seem more relevant. For example, surprisingly to the researchers, the level of aggression that a student showed in kindergarten couldnt predict whether the student would have a run-in with the law later in life - but his level of pro-social behavior could. The results make a convincing case for investing more in nurturing students social and emotional skills - which, according to prior research, are malleable and can be improved, with lasting and meaningful results.
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