Credit: Longroom
Huge gestures of kindness and love go miles for those on the receiving end. Helping someone who needs it—perhaps to afford medical treatment, or to feed their family—is an impactful feat that often has a ripple effect on those who witness it, spreading that warm nature to those near and far.
But something we don’t see celebrated often enough is the many random acts of kindness people promote in their day to day lives. A class of sixth graders at Osolo Elementary School is learning how even the tiniest of goodwill can make a monumental difference in someone’s life.
Credit: WSBT
Cindy Whittaker, one of the teachers pushing forward this agenda at Oslo Elementary says that the value in these lessons of random kindness towards friends, family, and others helps teach kids to consider the thoughts and feelings of others as opposed to just their own.
Using what the students described as their “celebration station,” the sixth graders delivered coffee, hot chocolate, tea, and snacks as per an “order list” they developed and organized. The students served as bright spots in the days of many, illustrating that not only does it feel good to receive, but to give.
“How do people’s moods change when people are being kind? They become happy,” one sixth grader, Fredrick Key says. “What happens when you are kind to other people? What ends up happening all around you? They end up being kind back to you.”
To many of the students, the experience proved that a small act of kindness can really change a community for the better, and by promoting that kindness, they receive a similar treatment in return. Their practice of compassion is something us adults can learn from.
