When asked parents and teachers both say that their top priority is teaching young people to be kind and caring, but the message most young people believe these adults are sending them is that good grades and achievement are what is most important Think about the unremitting messages young people are getting at home and at school about the importance of getting good grades and getting themselves “college and career ready.
Encouraging students to get good grades and to prepare themselves for college is important, but it’s time for us to prioritize teaching students that being a kind, caring and ethical person is even more important. With that in mind, here are some tools for teachers and parents to use to teach young people those values.
Steve Hartman Kindness 101 Steve Hartman a reporter for CBS News talks with his daughter and son about kindness and caring and together he and his kids show brief videos of actual people (including young people) practicing kindness and caring. Among the values covered in the Kindness 101 series are: Empathy, Gratitude, Service, Honesty, Purpose and Courage.
Making Caring Common. This is a website with resources for teachers and families to teach young people the importance of caring in their families, schools, community and country. The tools even include lesson plans.
Young Enough to Change the World: Stories of Kids and Teens Who Turned Their Dreams into Action. This is a book written by my wife Brie and I. In it we tell the stories of fifteen young people (two of them only 7 years old) who created extraordinary humanitarian projects to help those in need. Young readers will learn that in creating projects that improved the lives of others, the work these fifteen young people did enhanced their own lives.
If you know of other resources that can help young people become kind, caring and ethical, please share them with us