children are very aware of empathy. the school, home, church etc teaches them to be unselfish. kids are selfish and need to be told direclty to stop. i raised my kids in fancy new age parenting. then i noticed the kids who were just told to stop, or taken out of church, or told shame on you for hitting or taking a toy, these kids were so much more mature and helpful. I see it in the workplace as adults talk about their childhoods as well. those who had less and had chores and no lip was taken turned out to be more mature and kind. As an adult I catch myself being lazy until my boss tells me to stop!!