{"id":102,"date":"2013-12-09T13:17:17","date_gmt":"2013-12-09T21:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/?p=102"},"modified":"2013-12-09T13:17:17","modified_gmt":"2013-12-09T21:17:17","slug":"tis-the-season-to-celebrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/character\/blog\/2013\/12\/09\/tis-the-season-to-celebrate\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog Post: ‘Tis the Season to Celebrate"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Tis the Season to Celebrate – Kindness and Gratitude
\nBy Ed DeRoche<\/strong><\/h1>\n

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.<\/em><\/p>\n

~John Fitzgerald Kennedy<\/p>\n

This blog is the result of a Thanksgiving dinner conversation with ten kids–two in elementary school, four in middle school, and four in high school. The stories and tales the kids were sharing with one another about their school experiences, including peers and teachers were of great interest to me. I was proud of the kids and their views about two virtues that they didn\u2019t address directly but certainly underscored what they were sharing with one another\u2014kindness and gratitude.<\/p>\n

Their conversation stuck with me. I wanted to follow-up and to find out what others are saying and reporting about these two virtues. As luck would have it, I found three interesting resources. The first, an\u00a0article in\u00a0Scientific American<\/em>\u00a0(February 26, 2009) titled \u201cForget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts.\u201d I have taken the liberty to add: \u201cGratitude\u201d to this short summary.<\/p>\n

The article features an interview with Dacher Keltner author of\u00a0Born to be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life<\/em>. Keltner noted that humans have remarkable tendencies toward kindness, play, generosity, reverence, (gratitude) and self-sacrifice.<\/p>\n

The interviewer asked Keltner about \u201ctake aways \u201c from his study. One was that Darwin descriptions of emotions lead to his (Keltner) science-based conclusion that emotions are \u201cthe core of our capacities for virtue and cooperation\u201d love and tenderness,\u201d and other virtues. Keltner suggests that emotions that bring out the \u201cgood in others and in one\u2019s self can readily be cultivated\u201d (taught and learned, observed and practiced, modeled and mentored).<\/p>\n

Secondly, I discovered a report by researchers at Berkeley regarding a survey of 400 students ages 12-14 in which they found that students \u201cwho were more likely to be grateful to others ((I am adding “kindness” here) showed higher academic interest, grades, and extracurricular involvement, and had lower interest in risky behaviors.\u201d Positive parent relationships was also associated with gratitude (and probably with many habits of the heart including \u201ckindness.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Then in the middle of writing this blog, one of our Center\u2019s board members sends me a video of San Diego’s Superintendent, Cindy Marten, addressing teachers on the topic of why \u201cKindness Matters.\u201d It is like I planned this to be the highlight of this blog. I cannot do justice in a summary of what she says and why she says it. So, here is the link. I urge you to take the time to\u00a0listen to it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Kindness is not an inherited trait; it is a learned behavior<\/em>.\u2014 Katie Couric<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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