Consider this Stanford psychology study: four year old children were given the option of a treat right now, say, a marshmallow, or waiting for two marshmallows. Years later, the children who were able to wait had better academic performance (SAT scores) and life outcomes (stronger friendships, fewer behavioural problems) than their more impatient cohorts.
Given this evidence, training children to delay gratification ought to be a central goal of education. The question is how?
The answer: take them to Disneyland.
Last weekend, I witnessed hundreds of children aged between four and twelve stand in line uncomplainingly for over an hour, on a hot, sultry Paris afternoon, to ride Dumbo, The Flying Elephant. The ride itself lasts between two and three minutes. The ride is pretty cool, the rider can make Dumbo fly higher or lower by toggling a little lever. Nonetheless, this was an impressive display of delayed gratification.
If this is what today's youngsters are capable of, it bodes well for the future of civilization.
2 comments:
Like an unnamed person I know, who would postpone eating her chocolate so she could savour it later... Which gratification she never got because her unnamed brother would wolf down both his and hers. Sometimes postponing gratification also had consequences... no chocolate...
Some unnamed people have all the luck. They learn from delayed gratification from Dumbo and such great educators. And they learn from their brothers and cousins to be worldly wise, to be survivors in the real-world jungle. And it is because of these wonderful learning experiences that they live happy adult lives.
Some unnamed people simply don't know how lucky they have been.
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