Small Children With Good Manners Get Better Results At School Than Average Pupils

Nov. 6, 2008 - PRLog -- It is not clear if the teachers give better grades because they naturally tend to be more lenient with well mannered children or if it is 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 behaving properly. 76% of teachers surveyed acknowledged that they would naturally be more willing to spend extra time with a child who is polite that one without good manners. On the other end of the spectrum however, in Japan, where social 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/focus 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 the children. It is an interesting experiment in the sense that it combines two learning 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 versions of the game to teach simple basic words of English.  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 of etiquette and proper social behavior 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.

# # #

Organization dedicated to supporting the hamounious development of children thoughout the World. Based in the US Virgin island but working on prevention worldwide