Kindness Crucial With Country in Crisis

With so much division in our country, especially while dealing with a global pandemic, there has never been a more important time to practice kindness.  Aristotle defined kindness as “helpfulness towards someone in need, not in return for anything, nor for the advantage of the helper himself, but for that of the person helped.”  The Positivity Project describes kindness as being generous to others and never too busy to help out. Kind people, they say, enjoy doing good deeds for others. And an organization called Kindness is Everything (KIE) describes it as “one of the most beautiful and powerful forces for good that exists in the entire world.”

Kindness can spread by doing or saying the littlest thing.  In order to harness this power, schools all over the country make a point of teaching about kindness.  A school in Oregon celebrated National Bullying Prevention and Awareness Month last October with a campaign to become “Kindness Superheroes” who come and save others from the darkness. PTO Today, a national parent-teacher organization, recommends throwing kindness around like confetti.  Longfellow Student Carter A. described some of the ways she tries to be kind when in school.

“If somebody is eating alone, I would sit by them and maybe bring some friends, or if somebody looks down, I would ask if they’re okay,” she said.

Online school may offer fewer opportunities to be kind, but that doesn’t mean we should stop trying.  Carter had a few suggestions there as well.

“In breakout groups, try to actually participate and don’t let someone do all the work,” she suggested.  Likewise, Carter would like to hear more people responding when someone in a group reaches out. It can be very depressing to say “hi” to an online group and have nobody respond.

With distance learning, any response feels like a connection, even if it is merely an admission that someone doesn’t know the answer to your question.

Kindness is like an invisible water cycle. One kind act goes out into the world and inspires another, and another, and another.

“In online school, everybody’s having a hard time, and nowadays spreading positivity, even if it’s a simple compliment, it can go a long way.

As Kindness is Everything put it, “In a world filled with struggle and pain, kindness is like a deep cleansing breath that rejuvenates us with its purity, refreshes us with its goodness, and gives us the strength to persevere despite our troubles.”