Empathy is an essential emotion for living an overall healthy life. Simply put, it is the ability to understand and share the emotions of others. Moreover, it is not a quality that everyone can instill in themselves, but everyone must live a happier life. Similarly, people in Denmark understand the importance of empathy, so much so that it has been compulsory to teach children about it in schools since 1993.
Denmark was ranked as the happiest country in the world until 2016, when it was pushed to second place by Finland. Despite this, there is no doubt that Denmark is still one of the happiest places in the world. According to Denmark’s official website, happiness has always been closely linked to community spirit and social equality. Denmark deserves praise for both of these things. Both of these qualities are also driven by feelings of empathy, which drives Danes to do better for the overall development of everyone. An important example of collective empathy shown in Denmark is that people are willing to pay high taxes. Because they believe that it is the responsibility of everyone who can work to make life easier for the very young, the very old, the seriously ill, or the disabled. .
Jeff Sachs, co-creator of the World Happiness Report and professor at Columbia University, told CNBC Make It: “When researchers talk about ‘happiness,’ they’re talking about ‘satisfaction with the way your life is going.’ “I’m referring to that,” he said. Empathy is such an important emotion for well-being that a University of Michigan study of nearly 14,000 college students found that today’s students are 40% more empathetic compared to students in the 1980s and his 1990s. I found it to be low. That’s why Danish schools set aside exactly one hour each week to teach children about empathy. According to the Danes, empathy is a learned skill, not an innate quality. Just like in math or soccer, the more empathy you show, the more empathetic you become.
According to Quartz, each week there is an hour of “Klassens tid,” or class time dedicated to empathy, in which children discuss their problems as a class. These issues may or may not be school related. However, the entire class, including the teacher, brainstorms together and comes up with solutions while listening and understanding in real time. When there are no issues or problems to discuss, children simply practice “hygge”. Hygge is a term closely associated with Danish culture. In a country where there are only a few hours of sunlight a day, hygge refers to the warmth, light and contentment that comes with intimacy.
Teaching empathy does not work in isolation. We also need to teach our children other aspects of emotional maturity, such as kindness and gratitude. Competition is strictly prohibited in Danish culture. The only competition a person has is with himself. That way, kids can focus on where they need to improve instead of focusing on what they have to be better than everyone. Danes also tend to pair up children with different strengths and weaknesses and teach their children two things: The first is that helping others always leads to better outcomes, and the second is that success cannot be achieved alone.