How we develop gratitude in children

ismaelugas (58)in #steemiteducation • 8 years ago (edited)

Gratitude is a very powerful positive emotion and a moral virtue valued in all cultures of the world.

When we are grateful, we can identify positive elements in our life, we only express gratitude towards past or present circumstances, for example I am grateful to have such a friend in my life, I am grateful to be able to dedicate myself to what I like, I am grateful for the dawn that I witnessed today. You can not thank what still does not happen and this gives a sense of sufficiency to one's life, as opposed to the feeling of lack that arises from concentrating on everything we want and do not have.

Teaching children the true value of gratitude is something deeper than the simple act of saying thank you.

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The researcher Robert Emmons (2013), an expert on the subject of gratitude, has discovered that if we make gratitude a habit we have great benefits, such as strengthening interpersonal ties, having positive repercussions for health and helping to maintain a state of positive mood.
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By educating children in the value of gratitude, they are given a key piece in the construction of their maturity, as well as other teachings such as effort, humility, reciprocity, respect, generosity, diligence.

The school is the most appropriate space, we encourage gratitude in the classroom and we strengthen the competencies related to this value.

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Speaking of the atmosphere of the classrooms, we can use gratitude promotion to help our students: increase their repertoire of positive emotions, enrich their relationships with others, develop other emotions related to gratitude such as love, empathy and solidarity and also to enrich their confidence in life in general.

Actions to encourage gratitude in the classroom.

We already know that being grateful is not saying "thank you", even so, let's make sure that the word is constantly used in the classroom.

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Let us teach you to recognize the enormous opportunity you receive by enjoying formal instruction at school and let them understand that the best way to thank them is to make the most of it.

Let's distinguish between them the important work done by different agents and that usually goes unnoticed: the lady who sweeps the school, the man who takes care of her and the garbage truck staff. We invite you to express your gratitude in an innovative or original way. Let them understand

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Encourage peer cooperation and encourage them to recognize it periodically before the group; for example: "Manuel lent me his pencil", "Georgina explained the task to me".
We promote in our students a bidirectional line in the sense of "favor to please". If you help us with good behavior, let's recognize it with a little time to play or some other plan.
We promote good etiquette in the classroom and beyond: the combination of "Please" / "Thank you" should be the norm of daily communication.

Completing these exercises in the classroom will bring many benefits in the emotions and attitudes of the students.

Strategies for the elaboration of gratitude exercises

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• When making almost a gratitude journal.
A gratitude journal is a great idea. It does not have to be "daily", we can do it weekly, it can be at the beginning of Monday, invite your students to write in their notebook something they appreciate from the previous week. This helps a lot if these acknowledgments are made in a concrete way, it is not the same to say: "I thank you because last week was very beautiful" or "I thank you because last week I ate with my grandmother and I had a good time". We are looking for more examples, like the second one, to specifically point out what is being appreciated.

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• The letter of gratitude.
Another excellent strategy to learn to be grateful is to write a letter of gratitude. It can be for someone at school (a teacher, the principal, the staff) where they point out why they are grateful to that person. The idea is to be able to deliver this letter to its recipient, and with these mutual attitudes, we would be sowing values of gratitude and others in children towards others.

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• The chest of gratitude.
The value of gratitude is a simple practice.
In this next example we try to obtain a paper box for the classroom, in it, each student will place a paper where he writes "gifts", he can see a very beautiful school, a cafe with very tasty cakes, a very large blackboard, a very affectionate teacher, etc. The idea is to identify all these "gifts" and take them into account. From time to time, that trunk can be filled with new pieces of paper.

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These are some of the ideas with which you can begin to practice gratitude in your class, it will be very interesting that you apply them and observe the effect of cultivating this strength of character. It would also be very interesting if you could share photos and experiences to strengthen this community of teachers who are practicing Positive Psychology and remember, if we want to promote the optimal and integral development of our students, we must take measures that lead us to this Goal. And for the subject of "Gratitude", it is necessary to stop, observe and do something. It is necessary to give a space of gratitude and implement strategies to express it, thus promoting the individual and community development of our schools.

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