A Thumbs up to Random Acts of Kindness

Mrs. Leslie Lindsey, 8th grade Communication Arts teacher at Parkway South Middle, never imagined the inspiration that would be born from reading Pink and Say.

The book by Patricia Polacco was about how one young man helped another young man out of the pure kindness of his heart. The discussion led to a homework assignment to perform random acts of kindness themselves.  Reporting back to the classroom, the students were all surprised by how good it felt to do something nice for someone else.

The students continued to perform random acts of kindness, which ranged from bringing in candy for soldiers, helping out a pregnant teacher to being polite to other students or helping out a fellow classmate in need.

To acknowledge their kindness, Mrs. Lindsey created a "Thumbs Up Wall of Fame", where kids can sign their name for doing a good deed. Her husband also created "Thumbs Up" stickers as a way to reinforce the positive behaviors she was seeing in her classroom. Mrs. Lindsey adds, "Sometimes kids need to be reminded that doing good things for others improves the quality of life for us all, and I think a big Thumbs Up sticker shows them that I am proud of them and they should be proud of themselves, too."

This project has gone beyond Mrs. Lindsey's wildest expectations. Her student, Shae Sanders says it best. "The Thumbs Up stickers are great. They give you an extra incentive to do something nice for someone else.  It gives me the opportunity to recognize others within the school for the nice things they are doing also. It has created some discussion about why kids are wearing the stickers, which is positively impacting the school."

In the difficult middle school years, where it is easy to feel different or to not quite 'fit in', this gives kids a practical way to help others and build community. To that I say "Thumbs Up!"