KINDNESS:
Showing others they are valuable by how you treat them.
Each
of us has the opportunity to add value to another person through our actions.
What lessons do children need to learn about kindness?
Kindness requires us to “tune in” to others around us.
The
benefit of connecting with others is impossible to measure. We can all get
caught up in what we need or want. When we step into someone else’s shoes and
think of what they would appreciate someone doing for them, we can easily know
how to be kind.
Kindness allows us to have another’s interest at heart.
Turning
from ourselves to others gives us the opportunity to express kindness through
practical actions. Realizing the value of an individual and making their
interest as important as our own is the beginning of acts of kindness.
Kindness doesn’t expect anything in return.
The
motivation for kindness is the potential for helping someone else who has a
need. Children may believe, however, that they will receive a reward for acts
of kindness. There is, in fact, a reward though it is often different from a
child’s expectations.
A
familiar wise saying is “do to others as you would have them do to you.” It
gives us the basis for demonstrating acts of kindness. Kindness makes us feel
valued. By helping a child make this connection, we will give him or her one of
the basic tools for growing up to be a kinder person.
© 2010 Core Essentials, Inc. All rights reserved. www.coreessentials.org