Each and every day in our second grade classroom, kindness is a focused skill. We learn it through modeling , shared books, lessons and experiences. Students show kindness in the way they respond to one another, treat each other, and care for each other. It is evident throughout our school. Kindness is not something that just happens, it must be explained, practiced and celebrated. It is truly part of our daily curriculum.
Patty O’Grady, PhD, an expert in neuroscience, emotional learning, and positive psychology, specializes in education. She reports:
Kindness changes the brain by the experience of kindness. Children and adolescents do not learn kindness by only thinking about it and talking about it. Kindness is best learned by feeling it so that they can reproduce it.
According to Patty O”Grady, there is a great number of benefits that have been reported to support teaching kindness in schools, best summed up by the following:
- Happy, Caring Children
- Increased Peer Acceptance
- Greater Sense of Belonging and Improved Self-Esteem
- Improved Health and Less Stress
- Increased Feelings of Gratitude
- Better Concentration
- Reduced Depression
- Less Bullying
The good feelings that we experience when being kind are produced by endorphins. They activate areas of the brain that are associated with pleasure, social connection, and trust. These feelings of joyfulness are proven to be contagious, encouraging more kind behavior by the giver and recipient. Acts of kindness help us form connections with others which are reported to be a strong factor in increasing happiness.
Of course, kindness is a skill taught daily, if not hourly, at home too! To open lines of communication and offer opportunities for more discussion on kindness, I have attached a list of movies with kindness as the theme. Take a look!
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