Kindness with a side of Donuts

Earlier I tweeted a video from CBS Sunday morning about a person who decided to spend the last two years of his life empowering children to do good.  As I understand it, it all began with his desire to take a Krispy Kreme donut truck and go to a school and just give away donuts.  It grew into grants that children could apply for to fund projects and ideas they could come up with to help others. Wow!

What a great story.  I decided to share it because I think we need more good news.  I think that we are better than what the news tells us we are.  I know that we need to be informed about things that are going on.  I realize that the news can't be all about good.  There are horrible, awful things going on in the world that we need to be aware of.  But, do we really need to go on and on about bad behavior.   It's like that old adage that as a teacher I have heard time and time again:  Children will get your attention.  And, if you don't give them regular attention and encourage them to be good, they will get your attention with bad behavior so that you have no choice but to pay attention to them.  I'm beginning to think there is not a age limit for this.

Our children will look at us when they are overwhelmed by a situation.  We have choices to make when this happens.  We can calmly assess the situation and figure out if their need for our attention is because they truly need us to help or they just need acknowledgment from us.  Or, we can overreact and feed into a common condition with today's youth, the need to be rescued.  Problem solving is an important skill.

I just finished the book Wonder by RJ Palacio with my 5th grade class.  Auggie shows a lot of tenacity.  Sometimes he struggles with problem solving, but luckily he has a lot of help from friends and family.  As the theme of the book goes, I encouraged my students to show kindness to each other.  My goal is to show kindness this week and always.  I hope I get it right.