Compassion taking a back seat to achievement 

A new report from Harvard's Making Caring Common Project suggests that a large majority of youth across a wide spectrum of races, cultures, and classes appear to value aspects of personal success - achievement and happiness - over concern for others. 

This finding comes from a survey of 10,000 middle and high school students from 33 schools representing diverse youth from across the nation, and on conversations with and observations of youth, parents, and teachers over the past 10 years. The survey asked youth to rank what was most important to them: achieving at a high level, happiness (feeling good most of the time), or caring for others. According to the report, almost 80% of youth picked high achievement or happiness as their top choice, while roughly 20% selected caring for others. In addition, youth ranked fairness low in relation to several other values. For example, they were far more likely to rank "hard work" above fairness.

The authors say, "At the root of this problem may be a rhetoric/reality gap, a gap between what parents and other adults say are their top priorities and the real messages they convey in their behavior day to day." According to the data, about 80% of the youth in the survey reported that their parents are more concerned about achievement or happiness than caring for others. A similar percentage of youth perceive teachers as prioritizing students' achievements over their caring. Youth were also three times more likely to agree than disagree with the following statement: "My parents are prouder if I get good grades in my classes than if I'm a caring community member in class and school."

Johns Hopkins University 

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