Students understand that caring — including the virtues of compassion, kindness, benevolence, altruism, charity, generosity, and sharing — is the heart of ethics and they strive to demonstrate a concern for the well-being of others by displaying compassion for those in pain or need by providing support in the form of donations and/or personal service.
I will be a better student if I act on the following beliefs. I can
Learning Objective: To realize what we say and do makes a difference
Materials: Bowls half full of water; small packets of pepper; sugar packets; pieces of soap
Instructions:
Process and Reflection:
Explanation
The pepper floats on the surface of the water due to the high surface tension that hydrogen bonds have in water molecules. The piece of soap breaks those hydrogen bonds very easily and as a result, the pepper moves away due to the fact it is still on the surface of the water molecules. Hydrogen bonds break very easily as well as reforms easily. This is why the soap can only be added to the water for a few seconds for this to work because the hydrogen bonds will re-bond together.
Learning Objective: To learn what we say can have a lasting impact on others
Materials: Sheet of red construction paper cut into the shape of a heart
Instructions:
Process and Reflection:
Olivia Gardner was a sixth-grader in Northern California when she suffered an epileptic seizure in front of her classmates. Immediately, the name–calling began. The hallway insults and ridicule – freak, retard, weirdo – escalated into cyberbullying as a few nasty students set up an “Olivia Haters” website. One student dragged her backpack through the mud, and another whispered “Die Olivia” in her ear. The taunting was so bold that her tormentors distributed and wore “I Hate Olivia” bracelets.
Neither her parents nor school officials were able to shield Olivia from this sadistic abuse. Even changing schools didn’t help. The bullying followed her through two other schools until her parents decided home school was the only option.
Like many teenagers subjected to extreme bullying, Olivia seriously contemplated suicide. Olivia was not a weak girl and she had the love and support of her family, but relentless cruelty inflicted by mean–spirited teenagers and condoned by a much larger group, simply wore her down, leaving her feeling helpless and hopeless.
Fortunately, this is only part one of Olivia’s story. Part two is more uplifting.
A story in a local newspaper about Olivia’s ordeal caught the attention of two sisters – Emily and Sarah Buder, then 15 and 17 years old. The sisters never met Olivia, but their sense of compassion and justice ignited a desire to offer her personal support so they asked friends to join them in writing nice letters to Olivia to lift her spirits. This genuine gesture of compassion set off a chain reaction of support, encouragement, and love that ended in thousands of letters to Olivia, a worldwide anti-bullying movement, and a successful book, Letters to Olivia, edited by Olivia and her newfound friends – the Buder sisters.
This is more than a story about the power of compassion; it’s a powerful case study about the nature of leadership and the power of young people to make a difference. Don’t ever underestimate the difference you can make when you pursue your values with passion.
Being kind and thoughtful means making ourselves aware of the needs and feelings of others and then taking action to help them. It means taking the time to stop thinking about ourselves, to put the spotlight on somebody else’s needs, and to think “What can I do to make that person’s life a little better or easier?”
Sometimes we can’t do anything to solve somebody’s particular problem but just the act of showing concern and compassion can help to comfort them and make a difference. For example, your friend might be worried or sad about something that is happening at home. Even though you cannot solve that problem you can spend some time listening to your friend’s worries and supporting them as much as possible.
Caring and being thoughtful means letting things matter to us; not just for people that we know but also people that we have never met before. It means that we also value the needs and well-being of animals and the environment. Caring means that we have a concern when we see problems and unhappiness and wanting to help; from very simple gestures like buddying with a new pupil at school right through to spending your free time as a volunteer to help a good cause.
One ENORMOUS benefit of doing so is that it encourages other people to act in the same way. We can’t put it any better than the famous American pilot Amelia Earhart who once said:
“No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind of action leads to another. A good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.”
So – like a domino effect – we find that a simple act of kindness creates another act of kindness which creates another and another and another ……. and before you know it the world is a better place because everybody is taking the time to care about everybody else.
As you start to look around and deliberately look for chances to be kind, thoughtful, and helpful you will be amazed at how many opportunities there really are. Start with the small things like holding a door open for somebody, visiting a lonely relative, offering to help with somebody else’s task, or offer for somebody to step in front of you in a queue. Do it with a smile and you’ll be amazed at how easily you can make other people smile whilst setting a good example for others to follow.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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