World Kindness Day
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I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
– Maya Angelou”
World Kindness day was introduced on November 13th 1997 by the World Kindness Movement in the spirit of collaboration and sharing. They came together with the pledge to make a kinder, more compassionate world. Some of their objectives include: raising awareness of the World Kindness Movement, sharing ideas and experiences of kindness programs and their effectiveness throughout the world, and increasing international membership to allow for collaboration opportunities. World Kindness Day is a great day to begin building a new routine which means including intentional moments of kindness, laughter and delight! The plus side? It doesn’t cost a thing!
World Kindness Day is an annual celebration that takes place on November 13th. Since the goal is to make kindness the norm, it is encouraged that we find a way to make each and every day a chance to be kind.
We celebrate World Kindness Day as a way to cultivate resilience through acts of kindness. Through these acts of kindness, we can recognize just how important it is to connect with those around us. By caring for and treating each other with respect we allow ourselves to thrive together. By building a more compassionate society, kindness promotes effective communication by disclosing our needs and listening and empathizing with those who may have different perspectives and beliefs. By celebrating World Kindness Day, we encourage ourselves to conduct one Act of Kindness each day to help make the world a better place for everyone.
Everyone can participate in World Kindness Day. Kindness Day was created to highlight good deeds of those around us. Through kindness we feel the common connection between all human beings regardless of age, race, gender, orientation, ability, or economic class.
World Kindness Day is a day of unity that can be celebrated everywhere! From the community to your home and your school, there is always the capacity for kindness. In fact, according to The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, teachers who teach Social and Emotional Learning saw a 11-17% increase in the academic scores of their students. You can also celebrate Kindness Day on your own by practicing self-care. B Being gentle with yourself is very important, and it just so happens that the healthier and happier you are, the more positive you can be to those around you.
You can celebrate World Kindness Day by participating in One Act of Kindness each day, this includes offering assistance when you can, checking in on your friends, taking care of the environment, and treating each other with respect. You can also participate in our series of fun theatrical activities that will get students engaged and thinking about kindness in the hopes of making kindness a societal norm.
Event Days give you the ability to not only explore World Kindness Day, but also an opportunity to broaden that learning into experiential projects which can be shared. You can share them throughout your school, with other classes, and even more broadly if you choose. The ability for your students to not only have a project of their own, but to be able to see what other students were able to come up with, broadens the viewpoints and creates more dialogue surrounding the issues.
One size does not fit all
How you and your school decide to use the suggested activities, performances, and resources will depend completely on what you and your peers are comfortable with, and the time you have available to designate to the project(s). Trickster is also available to consult with if you would like extra help, resource connections, and/or coordination. You can go big, involving every class with different projects, performances and events throughout the school, or, you can go as small as just doing an activity listed in the materials for your own class which you believe will help them connect to the subject matter.
Due to the circumstances of COVID19, not everything suggested will be possible, and many will need to be adjusted to suit your needs and comfort level. As we hope to carry this forward, and know that schools are looking to future projects much further down the road, we do want to plant the seeds for what those event days might look like too. There will be suggestions throughout on how you can modify activities for social distancing, but you are also able at any point to choose and modify activities and projects to achieve the level of safety your school is comfortable with.