Cultivating Kindness

I read a news article recently about a boy in New Mexico who was repeatedly asking his mom to pack two lunches for school each day.  His mom figured he was just a very hungry growing boy, so continued to meet his request.  Eventually, out of concern, she asked him if he was just not getting full.  The boy explained that he noticed a little boy in school was only eating a fruit cup each day and believed he could not afford lunch.  He continued to ask if we (him and his mom) could continue to feed him.  After some time the mom of the little boy found out and reached out to the other mom through the school principal.  She wanted to pass a long some money mentioning that it wasn't much but she just got a job and wanted to pay her back for the kindness she showed her son.  She could not accept the money from this grateful mom.  The Volleyball team that the helpful mom coaches also raised $400 to help pay for the lunches, and the mom would not accept that money either.  Instead she decided to "pay it forward" and brought the money straight to the cafeteria of the school and paid up all of the past due balances of all the children so that no child would go hungry.  This type of kindness that the boy and his mother bestowed upon the little boy and his mother is not something you see or hear about often but it makes you want to do another act of kindness when you do.  The power of cultivating kindness is simply the act of being kind.

My school district recently had an assembly at all four elementary schools that was about this idea of cultivating kindness.  Many districts have brought this assembly to their schools and you haven't, I highly recommend that you do.  Mr. Richard Specht comes to schools with his storybook that he wrote, called A Little Rees Specht Cultivates Kindness, and his story of proof that kindness can be cultivated and grow like a plant.  A detail of his story is quite sad but he does an excellent job at telling his story and not upsetting the children with that detail.  He does a great job at showing how he was able to turn a tragic moment in his life into a teachable moment.  Everyone sitting in that room, children and adults alike, were positively affected in a way where they too wanted to participate in acts of kindness.  I am not going to tell his entire story however I will write about some of it to help explain the idea of cultivating kindness.  As Hurricane Sandy was quickly approaching, Mr. Specht was given the task of securing the backyard furniture as well as watch his two year old son while his wife was on errands with their daughters.  A friend came over to help watch the two year old as Mr. Specht frantically tackled the furniture.  When Mr. Specht came back inside he saw his friend sitting on the couch watching TV.  He asked what his son was doing and his friend thought the boy was with Mr. Specht outside.  An accident took place which resulted in the loss of his son at the same time as Hurricane Sandy knocked out all the power and destroyed everything in its path.  One day, after the hurricane was over, there was a knock at the door and it was a landscaping company.  Mr. and Mrs. Specht going through what they were going through just looked at him.  The man said that he thought he could help them.  The Spechts simply said they didn't need landscaping and the man asked them if they have seen their yard.  The Spechts said everyone was going through that.  The man told them not everyone went through, what they went through.  The landscaping company decided to work tirelessly all week making their landscaping look better than it ever had before (for free).  The Spechts were so grateful they tried tipping the men.  The men refused to take the money.  The Spechts went to their lunch spot and tried to pay for their lunches and the restaurant owner wouldn't take the Specht's money and instead bought the men in the landscaping company their lunch instead.  The Spechts wanted to return the kindness that the landscaping company, the restaurant, and friends and family members have shown them the past few weeks.  They decided to have 500 cards made that tell a little about their story and pledged that they would do 500 random acts of kindness.  

The first act of kindness is what led him on the path of cultivating kindness.  He was in the car with one of his daughters and drove to Dunkin donuts for breakfast.  While at the pick up window in the drive through, he paid for his order but did not drive away.  Instead, he gave the woman at the window one of his cards and told her he would like to pay for the breakfast that the car behind him ordered.  She took the card and his money and Mr. Specht and his daughter drove away.  Later that night he received an email from that woman at the window (his email address was on the card).  She said the most amazing thing happened when he drove away.  The car pulled up and the woman told him that his breakfast was paid for and showed him the card.  That man decided to pay for the order for the car behind him and left the card at the window.  The next car did the same and the car behind that.  This continued until there were no more cars pulling up to the window, 3 hours later.  One random act of kindness caused others to do acts of kindness.  Mr. Specht now has a website and cards made up that are past around all over the world.  People share with him the random acts of kindness they do.

After experiencing this man's story and sitting through one of the best assemblies I have experienced, I ask myself... how can I continue this idea of cultivating kindness in my school?  As educators of children, we ensure that they grow to be productive members of society.  We ensure that they have the education necessary to succeed in life in the work place as well as in the community.  The children that walk the halls of our schools are our future.  What better way to change the world than by cultivating that desire to spread kindness not only to friends but to people they may never have met.