As we all know, children are extremely malleable and early education and care experiences can have short and long-term impacts on many aspects of their development (Philips & Lowenstein, 2011).
Therefore, it’s very important that during those years, children receive a high quality and effective education. We believe early education and care should focus more on addressing attitude, positivity, and other aspects of emotional intelligence with children.
Emphasizing strong character, resilience, positivity, health, and kindness at a young age will instill in these children the fundamental character traits they’ll need to grow up to be successful, productive adults. In addition, shaping children to be happier and more positive will lead to better grade outcomes and greater learning. Studies have found a direct correlation between how students felt about their school’s climate and how well they performed academically [Read more here]. Essentially, they found that the more positive-feeling a school was, the better it’s students performed. Positive, happy, healthy kids lead to a safer-feeling school environment, which means kids spend more time focusing on important school matters and less time dealing with negative social matters.
The benefits of making all these things core tenants in early education are ten-fold. More than being academically sound, children that are raised thinking things like “the glass is always half full” will likely tend to also be less entitled and less likely to bully others. In a time of cyberbullying and record high suicide rates, a re-evaluation and re-direction of American’s education system are in order!
