Kindness taught in school
Kindness taught in Seattle school's online class
By Linda Shaw
Seattle Times education reporter
If you recently found a shiny gold dollar coin in downtown Bellevue,
thank the kindness class. Ditto if you stumbled upon a piece of glass
art in Pioneer Square, or a lottery ticket taped to a bus shelter
with a note saying, "This may be your lucky day."
Since mid-September, the 250 people in Puget Sound Community School's
online course learned about kindness by practicing it.
Along the way, they took emotional risks, repaired relationships,
improved their outlook on the world, and realized that kindness is
contagious.
Signing up for the class "just felt like the right thing to do in
order to step outside of myself and see the world as a helpful, kind
place, as opposed to a frightening place," said Barbara Kyllingstad,
of Seattle, who enrolled as a way to combat the isolation she's felt
since she got laid off from Washington Mutual this year.
"I feel a lot more peaceful and positive about the world."
The phrase "random acts of kindness" first showed up at least a
decade ago, a play on the expression "random acts of violence." Since
then, books, movies and even national organizations have sprung up to
keep the trend going.
Puget Sound Community School's kindness class ‹ now in its 15th year
‹ is a homegrown example that this year drew a record number of
students. A few were teenagers who attend the small, private school
near the Chinatown International District, which serves grades six
through 12, but many were friends and friends of friends who live as
far away as Poland.
Class instructor Andy Smallman, co-founder of the school, calls it a
"positive virus."
Smallman offered his first kindness class just to the teens at his
school, where creating a nurturing environment is central to the
educational philosophy. It was so successful he offered the second
class online, inviting anyone, anywhere, of any age, to sign up.
Watching 'ripples'
"It was the idea of throwing a little pebble into a pond and seeing
how far the ripples would go," he said.
The first assignment: Do something kind for yourself. Like airplane
passengers instructed to put on their own oxygen masks first in an
emergency, we all need to tend to ourselves before we can care for
others, Smallman says.
The second assignment: Do something kind for someone you love.
Then for a neighbor. Then for a stranger.
Read more
Blessings
Dan Benor, MD
http://awesomewholistichealing.com/
Posted by Dr. Daniel J. Benor at 1/27/2010 12:35 AM 
Categories: Social Responsibility,Wholistic Healing
Categories: Social Responsibility,Wholistic Healing
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