15: marshmallows and emotional intelligence pill 
; Miguel Gonzalez has four years. His favorite color is blue, superhero who wants to look is "Spiderman" and more, going to be an astronaut or a football player, but if this fails, you can always become a teacher of math like his dad - last consolation - Miguel is sitting alone in a room for several minutes. The room is all a gray, colorless, boring enough room and not very stimulating to a four year old despair after thirty seconds only ... From his seat, Michael looks at the wall looking longingly of stimulation. Curiosity is an electric snake climbs inside his shins while waiting for something, anything, happen. In an instant the door opens and crosses the threshold the seño , Phew, sigh of relief in the room. The Miguel seño bursts in gray scale with a large glass bowl filled to the brim with candy of all flavors and colors available ... Miguel's eyes fill with light. "Choose two sweets, Miguel ... What are the two candies that you love all of this bowl? "Says seño affectionate tone. Miguel can not believe, finally something good and more that good! orange candy bars, his favorite! "Now listen carefully, Miguel" explains seño slowly "I will let one of the candy here and the other I will carry with me. Whenever you want, you can eat candy that you left on the table, but if you wait until I return without eating the candy, I'll return the two, do you understand me? ". Miguel nods sipping saliva ... and seño leaves with a delicious, sweet and tasty caramel orange leaving Michael alone in the room with the other sad. Miguel looks to the ceiling and go gray, looks at a wall and go gray, looks at another wall and looks gray, look at the table and see ... A rich, sweet and tasty caramel asking you pierce the tooth. "No, not that!" Think "I want the two candies ..." But what most stressful! Imagine. Just before the candy. "When will the seño ? ... What if it takes a long ?..." Miguel's head is a pressure cooker cooking oranges. Michael looks back toward the roof is orange at times ... Miguel takes the candy and brings it closer to the nose, smell it, stain it and play with him drool in his hands. In the eyes of small the room has been dyed orange. Miguel looks towards the door, unwrap the candy, so look carefully, you see the door again y. .. What the hell!, Eat it. Two minutes have passed since the seño left and now returns to the room, but no other candy ... Laura de la Puente has four years. His favorite color is purple, you would like more like Hannah Montana and where would like to be a dancer or an archeologist, but if this can not be, as he has always said her mother could be devoted to railways as driving to the grandfather. When Michael leaves the sad gray room, Laura comes across him in the corridor before sitting on the seat to look at walls. Laura wait, wait and wait ... After a few minutes to appear about the serpent power impatience, seño comes in with a big bowl full of candy. Laura's eyes are filled with as much light as before those of Miguel. The seño slowly repeated the same instructions. Laura chooses two strawberry candy, bookmarks, and seño leaving again to leave the little one with the candy ... Laura looks at the ceiling, no nothing, look at a wall, there is nothing, look down, there is nothing. Pink sings the candy on the table. Laura close your eyes and think of things that have made this morning at school. "The N is a bridge which crossed the F, but in the middle of the road, appeared a hairline with Ñ and not let him. The F was angry to find the G. ... The truth is that after the letter H can cross the bridge with the help of the aqueduct M, so the story made for a few minutes and Laura glanced at tempting candy. "Aaahhhhh! Long sigh ... The small faces towards the door, watching the candy and plays with his index finger like a weirdo if and kicking his back. Laura looks at the candy does not look so pink, it's more like a big red ant and fat that has fallen back and do not know up. Laura picks up the ant, the walks, the amazing cliff drops the table but attention! Now a plane that flies, is the first ant with wings in the world and has been saved! With great skill the ant lands on the coordinates of the airport rose. Again appears a sweet strawberries on the table. Laura sighs deeply again. Actually been seven minutes and the room is turning pink. Laura blink, pink is almost like sweet violet and looks very rich. "No, I have to do something, I have to do something, I have thought ...!" Laura. And shut the eyes to look at the candy. But with eyes closed is all very boring so Laura decides to tell, just tell. Aided by the hands, the girl alone in the room gesticulating and rocks in the seat count and displaying fingers with your eyes closed. "One thumb, index two, three hearts, four ring fingers, five little fingers ... Six the other thumb!, Seven other index ... "Laura has thirty-two, the equivalent of six indices when they spent twelve minutes. And not take it anymore and screams. Gives a blow on the table, two. But nobody appears. It's the candy or her. Feeling tired and desperate. Known not to hold decision making more and more daring. He gets up and starts dancing and running around the table. It has been more than fifteen minutes when seño reconvened and finds Laura singing Bisbal. Without a word the seño other candy out of his smock and start small so fast from his hands and continues to jumps, now joy. Throughout his entire school career, is likely to get Laura de la Puente scored significantly better than Miguel Gonzalez.
In the sixties, the psychologist Walter Mischel of Columbia University made this simple experiment with a large number of children in different states. In the actual study, there was only one difference to the story of Michael and Laura, Walter used marshmallows instead of candy. After this first sweet stage, tracked the academic records of participating children for ten long years. The results could not be more conclusive: there is a significant correlation between those children who managed to endure more than fifteen minutes before the candy and children who did not.
Many psychologists consider this experiment a perfect example to demonstrate the benefits of knowing defer rewards or positive reinforcement over time. For educators, it is above all proof that there are a number of skills as important (or more) that the contents are trying to teach and assess, which are provided for your personal and professional success of our students. However, only reflect on the ability to defer the booster is a simplistic reading of this incredible study. Authentic question is: what did the children who have managed to endure and how I can teach these skills to those who have not achieved? Because education is not only an ongoing improvement process that involves developing improved our skills by learning (learn content and skills, we know from history and mathematics, we can write and manage computer education is also ...); a means for the active, professional and integration of human beings in society as full and autonomous subject in its decisions. But above all, education is a constant search for balance and wholeness vital student-teacher a shift lever and compass for the future of humanity. When we educate people want to get happy, full, complete and equipped with personal tools, not only cognitive but also emotional, communicative, and social ethics to live in harmony with themselves from the authenticity of their singularities.
In this study, four year olds are subject to a stressful situation proportional to evolutionary time in which they find themselves. If Laura has been able to distract yourself, imagine, create, recognize how he felt, weigh your options, to channel their frustration and finally as a consequence, defer their reward, it is unfair to the rest of our students have the opportunity to learn these skills. Laura is Laura herself at eighteen to its consideration of selectivity, to the twenty-six to his first job interview and be the forties when unemployed. Miguel too. Only that it could predict the future of both if you do not learn more than content with his family or at school, the two great educators.
If you look at the current curriculum, the only chance we have (and in many centers indecently wasted no structured activities and no evaluation) is the weekly hour of tutoring. Now, with the new introduction of the concept of competence in the LOE, the competition has appeared "Autonomy and initiative" that although it is a first step to address these skills in all subjects, their development and conceptualization are insufficient. Perhaps here comes the popular saying, knowledge (true) does not take place, it seems that the content itself.
Miguel Hernandez and Laura de la Puente may have thousands of faces and some of them are now in our classrooms. Laura is very likely to succeed in their personal and professional life, but do not forget to educate Miguel to know that today, still does not take place.
Industrial Safety anticipates, recognizes, evaluates and controls the risk factors that may cause accidents in industries. Is a set of multidisciplinary techniques that are responsible for identifying the risk, determine its meaning, evaluate corrective measures available and the selection optimal control. 
