It is not clear if the teachers give better grades because they naturally tend to be more lenient with well mannered children or really as a result of better performance. A survey of 597 children aged 4 to 8 in elementary school in France shows that 83% of the children exhibiting good manners (a set of traits ranging from saying hello and thank you to proper table manners in the school restaurant or respecting the other children) performed above expectation while that number was only 44% for children not exhibiting good manners. Teachers surveyed acknowledged at 76% that they would naturally be more willing to spend extra time with a child who is polite that one without good manners. On the end of the spectrum however, in Japan, where societal pressure to behave is very strong, there seems to be no direct link with good manners in kids and their performance at school.
The societal element of good manners is still hard to assess though: are children in Western Europe and North America who have good manners really performing better because they learn better or is the improved performance linked to a family environment more conductive to performance.
Some teachers are however not waiting for the results of more research to take action. In the Czech Republic, teachers in elementary schools are proactively using games to teach children good manners to their students. It is an interesting experiment in the sense that it combines two elements: a trivia game called “Don’t Pick Your Nose – Etiquette For Children®” and English classes. Teachers use the pictures to teach children the basics of good manners while combining the English and Czech version of the game to teach simple English basic words to the children. So far the feedback seems to be very positive.
One of the teachers doing the experiment wrote that the children very quickly acquired the basics and good manners and started applying them among themselves as a game, and later on an acquired reflex. Will these children get better results later on at school is yet not known.
In the United States, several organizations are also looking at ways to improve the manners of the children at school. However, experience show this can be a tricky topic as the amount of cultural diversity in the US schools can lead to very different understanding of what good manners are or should be.
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For more information, visit the World Health Organization (www.who.org)
Don’t Pick Your Nose – Etiquette For Children is a registered trademark of 4bambini (www.4bambini.com)
