Episode 2: Kids Class

The study went like this: Toddlers were introduced to a monkey puppet, one at a time, of course.

There were 134 toddlers in the study, an average age of 20 months old.

Once each toddler had befriended the monkey puppet, the toddler was given a small bowl of treats, Goldfish crackers or something like that.

The child was happy.

The reaction, all reactions, were analyzed frame by frame off the video by professionals who could read emotion by facial expressions.

Then the facilitator of the experiment pointed out that Monkey didn't get any treats.

"Poor Monkey.

Would you like to give Monkey a treat?" This is the key moment of the experiment, when each of the toddlers gave one of their treats to Monkey

When the child gave of their own, that's when they were the happiest, and it was happier than when they even received.

Like, they would have a little burst of, ooh, but it was more duration and, um, happiness when they physically gave the treat to the monkey, and then lit up with delight when the monkey received the treats and was like, "Woo, woo, woo, woo."

The study explored this question: What made the child happiest, receiving or giving? It found that giving yielded the most happiness, and it confirmed previous studies.

These results did not surprise Dr. Julie.

You know, I've had young children myself, and, you know, you, you see it.

Um, "Oh, I'm helping Mommy," or, you know, "I'm taking a little bug that we caught inside and putting it out, you know, outside." And, uh, it's still a delight for my now eight-year-old to be able to take a, to help a creature in need is a, is a big deal for, for children.

For her, this result made sense.

We are social creatures.

There's some kind of instinct, and we can either keep that, or we've ...

Sometimes maybe culture is overriding some of that.

I don't think it's natural for us to be so self-centered.

And that's an important point, she feels.

This is a trait that requires reinforcement.

The stakes are high with children, because it's easy to lose touch with this basic human instinct to be caring of others, and statistics tell us that we're in a mental health crisis with our youth, especially with the generation that came of age with the iPhone.

So what would it look like to teach compassion skills to kids? I found a place that does just that, and I checked it out

The study went like this: Toddlers were introduced to a monkey puppet, one at a time, of course.

There were 134 toddlers in the study, an average age of 20 months old.

Once each toddler had befriended the monkey puppet, the toddler was given a small bowl of treats, Goldfish crackers or something like that.

The child was happy.

The reaction, all reactions, were analyzed frame by frame off the video by professionals who could read emotion by facial expressions.

Then the facilitator of the experiment pointed out that Monkey didn't get any treats.

"Poor Monkey.

Would you like to give Monkey a treat?" This is the key moment of the experiment, when each of the toddlers gave one of their treats to Monkey

When the child gave of their own, that's when they were the happiest, and it was happier than when they even received.

Like, they would have a little burst of, ooh, but it was more duration and, um, happiness when they physically gave the treat to the monkey, and then lit up with delight when the monkey received the treats and was like, "Woo, woo, woo, woo."

The study explored this question: What made the child happiest, receiving or giving? It found that giving yielded the most happiness, and it confirmed previous studies.

These results did not surprise Dr. Julie.

You know, I've had young children myself, and, you know, you, you see it.

Um, "Oh, I'm helping Mommy," or, you know, "I'm taking a little bug that we caught inside and putting it out, you know, outside." And, uh, it's still a delight for my now eight-year-old to be able to take a, to help a creature in need is a, is a big deal for, for children.

For her, this result made sense.

We are social creatures.

There's some kind of instinct, and we can either keep that, or we've ...

Sometimes maybe culture is overriding some of that.

I don't think it's natural for us to be so self-centered.

And that's an important point, she feels.

This is a trait that requires reinforcement.

The stakes are high with children, because it's easy to lose touch with this basic human instinct to be caring of others, and statistics tell us that we're in a mental health crisis with our youth, especially with the generation that came of age with the iPhone.

So what would it look like to teach compassion skills to kids? I found a place that does just that, and I checked it out