TRANSCRIPT
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 experience social-emotional learning through the school curriculum.
Jessica Joelle Alexander is a parenting expert and cultural researcher, with a specific expertise in the Danish parenting approach.
“Danes believe that if you don't feel well, you don't learn well. And so they find it's really important that we dedicate time to make sure that the class as a unit is feeling good. And there's also a big belief that our wellbeing 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 like emotional intelligence, building resilience, cooperation and active listening.
“I think the biggest mind shift I've had is how much kids also need help with their relationships and when they get that help when they're younger, so they don't get into as much bullying, they don't get into as much girl drama - when they go into the work life, there's also more empathy for Moms, and there's more empathy for other situations that if we don't learn that early on, then we kind of grow up to be big kids.”
Danish early childhood teacher, Nana Hammer, has grown up with this 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?And 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. There are other people we might help each other.”
Now teaching at a kindergarten in Sydney, she is passionate about passing these skills on.
“I think something that's just really beneficial when you want to promote empathy within children is to look at it with a way bigger lens kind of, and really expand the term empathy. So being empathetic could be being polite. It could also be being aware of your surroundings.”
Some researchers have linked this Danish method of learning empathy to higher levels of emotional resilience, social connectedness and even improved academic results.
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.
Australia is placed in 11th place, the United States in 24th, with social isolation one reason cited for declining wellbeing.
This is Jessica Joelle Alexander, again.
“The Danish way is very much focused on a sense of happiness that comes from within. And that basically means that you feel good with who you are no matter what your accolades are.”
In Australia, ethics classes are run in hundreds of schools and are facilitated impartially by trained volunteers.
Feyza Tuncay is a volunteer teacher with Primary Ethics, an ethics education provider.
“They build skills in critical thinking, collaborative thinking, because they think for themselves, but they do it with other students, with their peers. 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. With older ages we talk about jumping to conclusions, voting we talk about AI interacting with AI. So there is a wide range of topics.”
Similar to the Danish system, this program supports the next generation to grow into empathetic adults.
