Manners Vs. Empathy and The Eddie Haskell Effect

This article published by NPR today really hit home with me.  It describes children who are kind but not necessarily helpful or thoughtful.  You might wonder how this is possible.  As described in the article, some children who have great manners are perceived as being kind even when they lack empathy.  In some cases, I've observed those children can actually be engaging in bullying behavior.  My friends and I have been calling it the Eddie Haskell Effect for years.  Do you remember Eddie from Leave It To Beaver (I'm dating myself)? He was especially polite to Beaver's parents but a real bully to Beaver.  When I was writing this blog tonight, I googled Eddie Haskell and discovered we were not the first ones to have seen this effect.  There is even an article from Psychology Today which describes it (Eddie Haskell Effect).  Since we are in National Bullying Prevention Month, it seems appropriate to have conversations about how to not only teach children to be polite, but also how to put themselves in someone else's shoes.  To learn more about how Sesame Workshop is approaching this issue, visit E Is For Empathy