Teach Your Children Well

Kids today.

You teach them all about biowarfare, global warming, the dangers of everything from cigarettes and STDs to pesticides and social faux pas. You train them to avoid stranger danger, never give away their personal information, and under no circumstances to eat unwrapped Halloween candy.

And then you wonder why they're not happier.

Turns out that kids actually need to be taught skills such as positive thinking, putting things into perspective, negotiating and compromising. When they actually learn about and practice these skills, elementary and high school kids are a whole lot happier. What's more, they feel better about themselves, and are less prone to depression.

These are the findings of a project called the Penn Resiliency Program, which brought a total of 18 "positive psychology" lessons into the schools. Educators use skits, role-play, stories and cartoons to present the concepts, and they practice with hypothetical real-world examples. Then kids put their new skills to the test — as homework.

According to studies conducted around the Penn Resiliency Program, these lessons may actually prevent depression and anxiety. The impact lasts for years. In fact, according to the researchers, "One study that examined PRP’s long-term effects on behavioral (externalizing) problems found significant preventive effects of disruptive behaviors 24 to 36 months after the intervention (Cutuli, 2004; Cutuli, Chaplin, Gillham, Reivich, & Seligman, 2007)."

The moral of the story? "Teach Your Children Well" is more than the title of a song by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. It's actually a recipe for stronger, happier kids.

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