IS DANISH HAPPINESS AN

INSIDE JOB?

As featured in The Copenhagen Post

Some weeks ago I was conducting research in Danish schools trying to gain a
deeper understanding of how Danes actively teach empathy in schools.

Seeing as empathy is now considered one of the single biggest factors in

predicting successful leaders, businesses, and general wellbeing, its no
wonder the Danes are consistently voted as being one of the happiest
countries in the world by the OECD.

Alarmingly, empathy levels in America have dropped up to 50% in the last 30

years according to a study by the Association for Psychological Science by
the University of Michigan. Denmark, on the other hand, continues to have
high empathy levels, which is partly due to it being entwined in the schooling
curriculum.
One of the ways Danes teach empathy, I discovered, is through teamwork
and something called co-operative learning. I explore this theme with my co-
author, a Danish psychotherapist, in the book The Danish Way of Parenting:
What the Happiest People in the World Know About Raising Confident
Capable Kids.

The idea of co-operative learning is to mix children of different strengths and

weaknesses to work together on projects and assignments to help each other.
The thinking goes that: if you are smart and talented you should hone your
skills, but you should also help others. While you may be a math genius, if you
dont learn to work well with your peers, you wont go very far. The math
genius will surely need help in other areas at other times and its a great
lesson to teach children early on since no one in life operates alone.

Interestingly enough, research shows that when you have to explain

something to someone else (like a math problem), you not only learn the
material much better than by memorizing it alone, but it also builds up your
capacity for empathy. Having to listen to the way someone receives
information and putting yourself in their shoes to understand how they learn is
all strengthening the mental wires for empathy.

Approximately 60% of schoolwork in Denmark is done in teams. This is

fascinating when you consider how many of us spend the majority of our
schooling careers thinking as an individual and yet, when we graduate, most
of us go on to work in teams in some form or another. Its no wonder, perhaps,
that Denmark is also voted as one of the best places to work in Europe.

The idea that one person should be a winner and stand out just isnt what they
strive for in Denmark. Instead, f you happen to be talented or gifted in a
subject, then you have a certain responsibility to help others who arent as
talented.

Before I left, I asked one of the teachers if there was ever something a
student would be awarded for. As I didnt see one trophy case in the hallway
or one sign of an outstanding student or a sports star I was indeed curious.

He laughed. I think the only time someone might be awarded for anything
would be for being a nice friend. But generally we dont want students to
compete with each other. We want them compete with themselves.
I was really struck by this. Is there any better way to build genuine self-esteem
than to compete with yourself without the need for an award or to beat
someone else? Isnt it more powerful to believe in your own progress than to
measure yourself against others? This seems like the real foundation for
internal wellbeing. True happiness, after all, is an inside job.