Building Character strength within our students

Expressing Gratitude

MY STUDENTS

I am currently working as an English teacher for a private school in Seoul, South Korea. My students are young, bright six year olds who come from very wealthy backgrounds.

I chose to implement the macro system of gratitude for the fact that these children are constantly surrounded by monetary objects and possessions along with financial abundance provided by their parents. Although these children have kind, loving, and beautiful hearts, their lack of awareness for others in financial, health or personal complications is outside their realm of understanding.

By instilling thoughts and actions of gratitude, these children have the opportunity to expand their perceptions and acknowledgement for their surroundings. They will be able to compare their situations with those less fortunate as well as formulate their own personal reflections of gratitude to further enhance and engrain those beliefs.

PROACTIVELY PLANNED

After working with my students for months, I came to understand that they lack a deep sense of gratitude. Because these students are learning ESL, I would constantly reinforce good manner behaviour. For example, when students would receive something from either myself or their classmates, I would make comments such as “what do you say?” when their statements of “thank-you” were forgotten.

I later came to the realization that after constantly praising them for using proper manners, they lacked the true meaning of the term. They were not expressing gratitude but rather stating it to receive the reward of praise.

PROACTIVELY PLANNED The target goal of this procedure was for students to ultimately possess a sense of gratitude rather than using it as an expression for ulterior motives(praise, stickers, happy faces, etc).

How did I plan to achieve this?

1. Explain the meaning of gratitude and why it is important.

2. Express things that I am personally grateful for in my own life.

3. Have students orally articulate the things they are thankful for.

4. Have them write words of acknowledgement to others.

5. Expose students to individuals who are in difficult situations so

they can learn to appreciate what they have.

6. Use growth mindset to expand their knowledge and understanding.

RECURRING In order for this specific character building to be successful, it had to be continuous throughout the school year. I had to relate it to the lesson plans as well as be integrated into certain events such as holiday class activities.

Every card that we made (Christmas, Valentine’s Day, etc), was centered around the notion of gratitude. Students were asked to state the things that they felt they were thankful for and relate it to the task. For example, students wrote Valentine’s Day cards and expressed feelings of gratefulness towards the recipient.

“Mom, I am thankful for you letting me do taekwondo”.

RECURRING At Christmas time, students were asked to visualize and draw what Christmas would be like for them. Many drew a large tree with gifts underneath of it. Others drew an abundance of food along with many members of their family sharing it together.

I then proceeded to show students videos of the typhoon that hit the Philippines as well as depictions of many unfortunate individuals in other parts of the world. I asked them to compare their situations and write down five things they are grateful for.

In the beginning, this was difficult for them because they insisted on writing very simple responses: “I am thankful for my house”. I needed them to expand on this so they could understand and appreciate exactly what it was about their house they were grateful for.

ACTIVE While students were expressing statements of gratitude, I as the facilitator went and met with each individual to discuss their thoughts. I really wanted to verify that their explanations had meaning and were not merely rudimentary considerations just so they could finish the assignment faster.

In the beginning, most students would proclaim appreciation for one of their parents. “I am thankful for my mom”. I had to get students to dig deeper in terms of their sense of gratitude so that they understood why they were thankful for that individual. Eventually, expressions expanded to “I am thankful for my mom cooking me food”. Using growth mindset, students were able to grow and expand their thoughts and opinions.

Although these examples are simple, they manifested from something so broad to a more narrow, specific articulation that pinpointed exactly what they felt gratitude for. For their age and level, this was far more than appropriate.

ALIGNED

We have all learned that being grateful can lead to peace of mind, happiness, physical health, and deeper, more satisfying personal relationships (Emmens, McCullough, 2003). Because of this, it is imperative to instill this character behaviour in our children. If we want future generations to evolve into selfless individuals who have a deep understanding and connection to the entities of value within their lives, then we need to promote these strengths within our classroom as well as at home.

This transcendent quality is an active behaviour that is aligned with the other associated character strengths. Students worked towards a goal and were strongly encouraged to expand their knowledge rather than having a fixed mindset with regards to simple statements made concerning gratitude. Along with action, recurrence and teacher guidance, students gained a sense of appreciate for life outside their own.

REFERENCES

Emmons, R. A., McCullough, M.E., (2003). Counting Blessings Versus Burdens: An Experimental

Investigation of Gratitude and Subjective Well-Being in Daily Life. Journal of Personality and Social

Psychology, 84, 377-389.