A study conducted by the Harvard Graduate School of
Education showed that of the 10,000 middle and high school
students surveyed, only 20 percent picked caring for others
as their top priority. Eighty percent chose high achievement
and happiness -- in large party because they believed their
parents valued achievement and happiness above caring.
It’s no surprise, then, that there’s been a substantial drop
in empathy from 1979 to 2009, another study shows. The
students surveyed grew less likely to feel concern for people
less fortunate than themselves—and less bothered by seeing
others treated unfairly.
Given the state of our economy, and the ever-widening gap
between rich and poor, the shift in focus from kindness to
achievement seems like a plausible response. Can we truly
afford to put kindness above achievement? Isn’t kindness
often an impediment to success? Don’t nice guys finish last?
No, actually.
Science reveals that happier and more successful kids
who care about others are able to better relate, respect
differences, and perhaps most compellingly, develop the kind
of motivation that fuel successful people to go the distance
without burning out in their academic and professional
pursuits. Genuine kindness (not the ingratiating, please-
step-all-over-me version) is a strength that spurs long-term
achievement and true happiness.
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