The Kindness Challenge

verdant123.com

verdant123.com

What if everyone chose to be kinder every day? While traveling in South America, I ran into a group of students in the photos above. In the center of Santiago, Chile, they spent an afternoon of their winter break giving away free hugs, or “abrazos gratis.” They could have been home watching TV or playing video games. Instead, they shared bits of happiness (even with a wayward gringo).

Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly around the world. She said, "A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees." 

Keep reading to learn about others who share Earhart's belief...

skateistan.org

Skateistan is a nonprofit that began in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2007. The organization now reaches out to youth in Cambodia and South Africa as well.

"Skateboarding is one of the best types of education you can get, as it is learning through play. Thanks to skateboarding youth are exposed to people of different ethnicities, gender and beliefs. It provides you with a community to inspire, guide and challenge the participator. It also teaches you how to be creative with your ideas and it provides the outlets for that creativity.

In Afghanistan, it is considered inappropriate for girls to ride bikes, but with skateboarding there is no stigma attached to it. In the skate park, youth from different backgrounds are able to form strong friendships and the novelty of skateboarding, compared to more mainstream sports, has been especially enticing for youth.

Gender-based inequality is an important social issue that Skateistan aims to address by including as many girls as possible in their programs. Over 40% of registered students are female, and Afghanistan has the highest percentage of female skateboarders in the world. Skateistan offers girls­-only sessions at all of their Skate Schools!"

-Skateistan.org

Click here to learn more.

skateistan.org

indykids.org

In Lexington, Kentucky, groups of kids sold over $40,000 worth of lemonade to support homeless families. Click here to read the whole story at Indykids.org.

madhousers.org

A kind group of volunteers in Atlanta build free shelters for homeless people. The Mad Housers make their building designs available online for anyone interested in helping the homeless with one of life's most basic needs.

madhousers.org

In 2008, I joined The Mad Housers for a build here in Athens at a homeless camp on Lexington Road called Tent City. We built a hut for Radar, a young war veteran. Click here to learn more.

Radical Joy for Hard Times

Radical Joy for Hard Times is a community of kind and compassionate folks around the world who identify places that have been injured by natural or man-made acts. According to their website, "Creating a sustainable, thriving future on Earth depends upon opening our hearts to the natural world in its brokenness as well as its splendor. Just as we cannot heal our personal wounds until we face them honestly and compassionately, so we must face the broken, ugly, “wounded” places we live among in order that we can find beauty there, thank the places for all they have given, and so heal our relationship with them." Click here to read more, or right here for a slideshow.

verdant123.com

To celebrate the 100th day of school, I challenge the class to 100 acts of kindness. Do something kind, compose a short personal narrative then place it in the Box of Kindness. We will track our acts on a graph and reflect upon the effects on friends, family, community, animals and the environment. Let's take Amelia Earheart's advice and throw out our kindness roots!

The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule, written by Ilene Cooper, kickstarts the kindness challenge, and promotes a classroom atmosphere of empathy, compassion, and cooperation. Surrounded by Gabi Swiatowska's dreamlike illustrations, a young boy's grandfather explains the universal principle with examples from Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and the Shawnee tribe. 

During the read aloud, we embark on thoughtful conversations sparked by questions like, "What would the world be like if individuals and nations followed the golden rule?" The lesson ends with a contract, when everyone signs their name and commits to being mindful of others.

Joy

 

During the last library lesson of 2015, Mrs. Hudson reads Kate DiCamillo's Great Joy, a moving story of one child's incredible compassion. Next, she guides the class through an introspective and collaborative exploration of the many ways we can all spread joy. The word cloud above illustrates the variety of thoughtful contributions.

What is one of the best parts of the holidays that you can't touch, taste, see, smell or hear? This is the last T.A.G. question of the year. Enjoy the following (unedited) responses, and happy holidays!

 

 

Kindness and Compassion

While exploring common themes in children's literature, the class compares and contrasts kindness and compassion. Enjoy the thoughtful (unedited) responses…

"Kindness and compasson are simler and diffrent,because kindness is when you are helping others,and compassion is also when you are helping others.They are also diffrent because kindness,you don't have to be helping others who are suffering,but compassion you have to be helping people who are suffering.For an example if I find one of my sisters stuffed anmales,and I give it to her thats kindness not commpassion because she was not suffering.Thats how commpasson and kindness are simler and different."

"Kindness and compassion are simaler and different. They are both helping someone, but compassion is only helping people who are suffering, while kindness is when no-matter-what they help. For example, in Cat In The City, some dogs help the cat because he is scared, not for no reason. That is how kindness and compassion are the same and different."

"Kindness and compassion, They both mean to help someone happy. But compassion is when someone is suffering to feel better. Like how I help my brother feel better when he got his tabelet tooken, So I made him feel better. Then a teacher ask can she borrow my computer witch im on. Now those are some examples for compassion. Last but not least kindness! Kindness is when some do not have someone to play with and you play with em. This is a example for kindness. I played our xbox1 with him and we played call of duty ghost and it was pretty fun and the setting at our granddad's place."

"Compassion and kindness are simmalar because in both situwations you are being kind. Compassion is different from kindness because Compassion your only doing something kind because there hurt and need help. A way that kindness is different from Compassion is that when your being kind your just being kind to be kind. For example Batiste is kind to everyone just to be kind to everyone and Niko too. Also Lincoln is compassionate to those who are hurt."

"Kindness and compassion are different because kindness is just being nice but compassion is being nice because you feel sorry for someone. For example, you could treat someones wounds out of compassion or you could do it and not feel sorry at all. also compassion is kind of a way of saying "kindness out of sympothy."

"Kindness is different than compassion because kindness is when you are nice at all times ,and compassion is when there with you when you need them the most. Compassion is the same as kindness because there always there to cheer you on."

"Kindness and compassion are very similar, but slightly different. If I give my little sister a bite of the cookie I'm eating, that's kindness. If she's crying, though, and I calm her down, I'm showing compassion. They're both being nice, but one is when someone needs help, wile the other's when you do it to be nice. That is how kindness and compassion are similar and different."

"( Contrast) Compassion is when anyone wants to help something who is suffering better by something helping and kindness is when you are nice and considerate no matter what. ( Compare) Compassion and kindness are the same by if something needs a hand then you can give them one and to do that you are kind and something could be hurt like if they have fallen and you give them a hand then you are being kind and you are helping something feel better and that would be helping something who is suffering feel better."

"kindness is being kind like doing something like helping someone up when they fall.But compassion is like caring if someone falls, compassion will say "are you ok?".kindness is kinda like compassion if someone falls its kind to say "Are you ok?".

"kindness is different from compassion, because kindness is when you are generous and consiterit to others. Just like in the book "The Lost Thing "also in the book "The Rabbits " Compassion means that the characters from the book want to make people that are suffering feel alot better. Just like in the book "The Lost Thing," and in the book "Mrs.Frisby and the Rats of NIMH," Kindness and compassion are simular, because you have to be kind to help people when there suffering, and if you help a person while there suffering, you are very nice and kind."

"kindness mean when you help someone or being friendly to someone.Compassion mean when you help someone who is suffering feel better.So they are the same because your being kind to that person.They are diffant because compassion you are trying to help someone feel better and kindness mean when you helping someone or being nice to them . For a exple for kindness I helped my dad walk out to the car and a exple for compassion I helped my siser all day when she was not feeling good.That is how I compared and contrast."