Dear Teacher Who Teaches Kindness,
Whoever you are, wherever you are, please keep praising kindness. Yes, there's a curriculum, and a high passing rate on a state test is a feather in your professional cap I suppose. However, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that surpasses the importance of teaching children to be kind to one another.
This year when you're handing out gold stars, do your students a favor and don't always stick them on the chart for kids who made an "A." Let those stars also be for the boy who held the door for a little girl with crutches or for the kid who shared a lunch with someone who didn't have much to eat.
Don't grow weary in teaching kindness or convince yourself it's not your job because I promise it is a skill that will take students much further in life than a 7.2 GPA ever will.
Contrary to what some people believe, I think kindness can be taught, and here is the proof.
A few nights ago I saw a story circulating social media from Halloween. A family, who generally has 200-300 Trick or Treaters, posted a sign in their yard that said, "Sorry. No Candy. Child with Cancer. See you next year."
Their intent was to spare neighborhood kids the sadness of a lonely walk to the door without the reciprocity of a friendly face eager to dole out Twix by the dozen.
In creating the poster, what the parents never envisioned was waking up the next morning to piles and piles of candy littered beneath the sign. Each trick or treater who stopped took from his own bag and laid his treats at the grass for the little boy who was too weak to dress in costume or take a luxurious neighborhood stroll for candy.
This story truly made me want to cry or pick up a pen. I chose the latter because I could not stop thinking about the first person who dropped the initial piece of candy. All the others followed suit because kindness is contagious, but someone had to be the first. Someone had to notice the suffering of another person and ask, "How can I help? What can I do?"
I visualized the pile growing larger as the night waned. It made me realize the ring leader had been taught through modeling (maybe from a fourth grade teacher or a parent) that nothing in this world is more important than kindness and love to your fellow man. Through his selfless act, he urged others to follow.
Tonight we're awaiting results of the 2020 election. The nation is on edge. There are rumors of riots and uprisings. No matter how the votes are tallied to some it won't be fair or right. They'll be angry.
They may even want to cause others harm, but I am guessing a mob of kids who empty their treats at the foot of a sign don't care if that sign is for Democrats or Republicans.
Regardless of who sits in the White House, the goodness and generosity of children is where I put my hope for a better tomorrow.
The givers in this story only cared about seeking a way to comfort another human being who was suffering. Undoubtedly, they learned this type of kindness from an adult, and now they are trying to teach us the same lessons we've taught them, namely how to be good human beings.
May we daily follow their lead when they ask, "What can I do? How can I help?"
-CDB