Students Join in Worldwide Kindness Challenge
From January 23-27, Shore students in every grade helped make their school an even kinder place than usual. The occasion was the Great Kindness Challenge, a worldwide school initiative involving millions of students in more than 60 countries.
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."
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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."
While Melia and Head of Lower School Sara Knox helped to organize the week's activities, fifth grade junior senators were integral to Shore's participation in the Great Kindness Challenge. They created stations throughout the school that encouraged students to show kindness through creativity, and they sponsored a door-decorating initiative that saw almost all of Shore's classroom doors decked out in everything from smiling emojis to balloons and streamers.
Kindness is the rule, not the exception at Shore; the first tenet of Shore's Community Code reads, "I will be caring and thoughtful of others in my words and actions—I will be kind." Even still, said Melia, "It can be very hard for young people to stop and think outside themselves, to think about how someone else is feeling. But that isn’t just a middle school thing; that’s an everybody thing."
According to Melia, 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."
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Delivering a thank-you note
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Kindness builds bridges in the Lower School
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A kindness station
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Colorful cutouts held kind thoughts
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Mr. Griffin's door was decorated by Pre-K
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Thank-you's for Nurse Cronin
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Emoticons on a third grade door
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Shore Country Day School’s mission is to provide an education that inspires a love of learning and encourages children to embrace academic challenge. We seek to build character, cultivate creativity, and value diversity as we help our children become healthy, compassionate citizens of the world.
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