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Economic Multipliers (184)
Do you know what these are?
They help CREATE wealth in systems.
The ability of young children to express ‘gratitude’ is an economic multiplier.
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Many individuals over the years have done research on whether individuals, communities and societies end up with ‘happier’ adults if those same adults, when they were young, learned how to express ‘gratitude’ for the things in their life.
Based on the little I’ve read, it’s true.
Sometimes it’s hard to know what came first – the chicken or the egg.
I was struck by this comment:
‘Gratitude seems to stimulate moral behavior, and may be an important factor in the construction of morality itself.’ (See P.S.)
As an adult, you’ll rarely ever hear me say an audible prayer (sometimes I think that is because I don’t normally eat meals with children anymore). Growing up, it was ‘normal’ to be communally thankful for the food on the table and other things.
Historically, gratitude has been a large part of religious education. Obviously moral education is also part of religious education. Public schools have been actively working to get more of these components into the educational process. Similar to many other things in life, very early education appears to be a key.
Lacking the ‘deep reading’ in this area, I’m going to note a component that is worthy to search for (if you go looking). This complementary link may be there. It also may not. I believe this to be true:
Kids who are NOT taught how to express gratitude also have a much more difficult time ‘seeing’ all the resources around them (no one teaches them how to look for them) – and if they can’t see the resources, it’s much more difficult for the communities and societies they live in to create wealth.
You can’t guarantee that kids will turn into happy adults. It’s just much more likely if they’ve always known how to express thanks.
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P.S. Beyond Politeness: The Expression of Gratitude in Children and Adolescents by Lia Beatriz de Lucca Freitas, Maria Adélia Minghelli Pietaa and Jonathan Richard Henry Tudge
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