As an educator and parent, the one attribute that I believe all children should learn from birth is to be kind. I do not say this in an arbitrary way. It is fundamental to the children that we are raising. It impacts all aspects of their lives from birth onwards. It is obvious to observe the children that have been raised in this way. They are the ones who are openly friendly, considerate of their peers from a very young age and generous in their nature.
Yes, spreading random acts of kindness is now a thing! However, shouldn’t we be compassionate, kind, and generous in all aspects of our lives without being reminded?
Our world is a truly daunting one in 2024, for both adults and children alike. Never has it been more important to show love and compassion to our fellow man. Expressing kindness should be an intrinsic aspect of our everyday lives.
We are the ones, as both parents and teachers, that must emulate and reinforce kindness on a day-to-day basis, so that our children grow up and develop kind personalities without the need for social media prompting. We are the next generations’ role models!
Human beings are naturally caring, and it is easy to reinforce this through our everyday lives:
- Make caring for others a priority at home – at times, we tend to prioritise children’s happiness and achievements over caring for others. We can change this simply by using sentences like ‘The most important thing is that you are kind’. Emphasis should be placed on how we interact with others and praise given when kindness is shown.
- Provide opportunities for caring to take place – allow children to practice being caring and demonstrate to your children acts of everyday caring.
- Widen your children’s circle of caring – normally we show concern for our inner circle of close family. Encourage your children to widen this circle by showing concern for a new child at school, yourself helping a neighbour or volunteering to help others in the local community.
- Be a strong role model – children model their behaviour on the adults that they interact with. We need to be honest, fair, and caring in our everyday lives and daily demonstrate our positive behaviour.
Realistically, teaching the world to be kind is a big ask. However, if we all stop, take a breath, and really try, we will make a real difference in the lives of our own families, those around us, both our local and wider communities. Together, we have the ability to always be kind. How we choose to show this is a choice that we actively need to make!
When you are kind to others, it not only changes you, it changes the world.
By Penelope Best,
International Education Consultant
