When Kindness Comes to the Classroom

For one week each January, a surprising change overtakes Shore Country Day School in Beverly. Together students, teachers, and staff at the pre-k through ninth grade private school transform classroom, hallway, dining hall, wall, and window with inspired, creative work that won't earn them a grade, prize, or congratulations. Smiles, hugs, and high-fives seem to be more widespread than usual. From class to recess to lunch, the talk turns to a topic that's taught in every grade, but isn't found in any standard school materials.

For this one week at Shore, the curriculum is kindness. Students and teachers alike consult checklists showing dozens of recommended acts of kindness. Stations are set up in common areas for creating thank-you notes, compliment cards, and person-shaped kindness quotes. Classrooms work together to decorate doors with everything from smiling emojis to flowers, animals, and balloons. Students and teachers even stage a special "Mannequin Challenge" in which 400+ participants freeze in poses representing acts of kindness.

It's all part of the Great Kindness Challenge, a worldwide school initiative involving millions of students in more than 60 countries. Founded in 2011 by Kids for Peace, a student-led global 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the Great Kindness Challenge is built on the simple belief that kindness is strength. In the words of the organization's founders—Danielle Gram, a high school honors student, and Jill McManigal, a mother and former elementary school teacher—"We believe that as an action is repeated, a habit is formed. With the Great Kindness Challenge checklist in hand, students have the opportunity to repeat kind act after kind act. As kindness becomes a habit, peace becomes possible."

During Shore's week of kindness, students completed dozens of actions on the checklist, such as writing a thank-you note, helping a younger student, or picking up trash on campus. Sean Melia, Dean of Students and sixth grade English teacher, said, "The word kindness gets used a lot these days. It’s a trait that has regained momentum and value. ... Communities like ours thrive on the kindness we show towards each other."

While Melia and Shore's Head of Lower School Sara Knox helped to organize the week's activities, fifth graders were integral to Shore's participation in the Great Kindness Challenge. They volunteered to manage the numerous stations throughout the school that encouraged students to show kindness through creativity, and they sponsored a door-decorating initiative that saw most all of Shore's classroom doors decked out in bright colors and kind thoughts.

Unsurprisingly, kindness is the rule, not the exception at Shore; the first tenet of the school's Community Code reads, "I will be caring and thoughtful of others in my words and actions—I will be kind." This idea—and others such as responsibility, openness, and respect—guide every aspect of day-to-day life at Shore. According to first-year fifth grade teacher Amanda Berg, "I've never before taught in a school with a code like Shore's, where children literally recite the words from memory and genuinely try to live up to its ideals every day."

Even still, said Melia, "It can be very hard for young people to stop and look outside themselves, to think about how someone else is feeling. But that isn’t just a middle school thing; that’s an everybody thing." In Melia's view, the Great Kindness Challenge comes at the perfect time. "At this point in the year," he said, "it can be even harder to be kind. It’s cold and we’ve been together for four months now. People might get on our nerves. But moments like the Great Kindness Challenge offer us a chance to stop and remind ourselves to be kind to others, and to slow down and appreciate someone else for a bit."

In his weekly e-mail to students, Melia added his own twist to the Great Kindness Challenge: "My challenge to all of you is to go out of your way to do something a little bit nicer than you normally would. Try being kind to someone you don’t know well or isn’t in your grade. Kindness is being generous, friendly, and considerate. If everyone is kind next week, we’ll have a fabulous time together."

Looking back on the just-completed week of kindness, it's hard to argue that Shore's students did anything but rise to the challenge.