The festive season is known as a time to spread kindness and goodwill but in Denmark, learning and practising traits like compassion and empathy is a year-round craft.
Since 1993, all Danish students aged six to 16 have experienced social-emotional learning through the school curriculum.
"Danes believe that if you don't feel well, you don't learn well," said Jessica Joelle Alexander, a parenting expert and cultural researcher, with a specific expertise in the Danish parenting approach.
"There's also a big belief that our well-being is very tied to our sense of belonging and how we get along with others."
These classes are seen as important developmental building blocks — teaching children skills such as emotional intelligence, building resilience, cooperation and active listening.
Danish early childhood teacher, Nana Hammer, has grown up with the system.
"We sat for maybe one and a half hours and discussed what was happening in the classroom, what were the dynamics, how did something made you feel? Was there anything you were struggling with? Do you find that there's any bullying?" she said.
"It was actually a beautiful opportunity to touch base with your peers and again, be reminded that you're not the only one struggling with this."
Now teaching at a kindergarten in Sydney, she feels passionately about passing these skills on.
Some researchers have linked this Danish method of learning empathy to higher levels of emotional resilience, social connectedness and even improved academic results.
The Nordic happiness podium
According to the World Happiness Report, Nordic countries once again lead the happiness rankings with Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden sitting in the top four spots.
In Australia, ranked 11th in the report, ethics classes are run in hundreds of schools and are facilitated impartially by trained volunteers.
Feyza Tuncay, a volunteer teacher with ethics education provider Primary Ethics, said students often "build skills in critical thinking, collaborative thinking, because they think for themselves, but they do it with other students".
"They take away the notion that there are diverse opinions, there are diverse backgrounds, they learn how to have this respectful discussions or disagree respectfully."
Using age-appropriate scenarios, students are encouraged to discuss their responses.
"There are topics like empathy, fairness, we talk about is lying ever okay. We talk about boasting, bragging or sharing," Tuncay explained.
"With older ages we talk about jumping to conclusions, voting, — we talk about AI, interacting with AI."
Similar to the Danish system, this program supports the next generation to grow into empathetic adults.
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