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As a drone flew overhead, 400 students at R.O. Hardin Elementary offered a fitting tribute to the spirit of Kindness Week, a national initiative to promote a positive school culture. Some gathered within the outline of a giant heart, while others fell into formation as letters spelling out the central message, “BE KIND.”
Led by Resource Specialist Teacher May Wadahara and the students in the year-old Kindness Club, the school-wide event was one in a series of activities during the week focused on making expressions of kindness an everyday behavior.
“I’d heard about other schools doing kindness clubs,” she said, “and I thought it was a good opportunity to teach kids about kindness. It is a way of showing our unity and that our goal is to spread kindness.”
As part of Kindness Week, tables were set up during lunchtime for students to color and decorate hearts and bookmarks with encouraging messages such as “Thank you for being kind” or “You are amazing,” to share as gifts with friends, staff or family.
Eric, Michael, Bentlee, Alexa and May Wadahara. Photo by Robert Eliason. 
Be Kind artwork. Photo by Robert Eliason. 
Be Kind artwork. Photo by Robert Eliason. 
Be Kind artwork. Photo by Robert Eliason. 
Making cards. Photo by Shon Morrison. 
Making cards. Photo by Shon Morrison. 
Getting ready for the drone. Photo by Robert Eliason. 
Getting ready for the drone. Photo by Robert Eliason.
There is also the ongoing Great Kindness Challenge in which students are encouraged to complete specific acts of kindness, such as inviting a new friend to play or smiling at 25 different people. Once they completed these tasks, they received small rewards such as stickers, pencils, or a prize from the office Treasure Box.
As an outgrowth of the school’s focus on social emotional learning, Wadahara said these activities are intended to teach students that it’s OK to be kind to other students, even those they may not know well or at all, and perhaps to uplift students who may be going through personal trauma or emotional struggles.
“If we can start with one student at a time,” she said, “I feel like it’s going to help. They’re learning that it’s okay to be sad, and that when someone smiles at you, you smile back, even if you don’t like that person. You don’t know what they’re going through.”
There are many ways to show care, according to members of the Kindness Club.
Bentlee, 8, said that when she sees someone being bullied she’ll tell the bully to stop because it’s not nice. Eric, 7, said that if someone falls, he helps them back up. Michael, 10, said he is also concerned with bullying and will find a teacher to talk to when he sees it happening. Alexa, 8, said she likes to make hearts, which she gives to people to make them happy.
“We want the kids to show kindness to everybody,” Wadahara said. “Not just to their friends, but to everybody they meet. And not only in school, but also when they go home. We’re hoping that it can start to spread, one act of kindness at a time.
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