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The school’s sixth grade class is participating in the Kindness and Justice Challenge, a pilot program aimed at encouraging the students to be thoughtful toward one another and defend what’s right. The initiative coincides with the school’s overall anti-bullying program and “Respect for All” week, when schools citywide are asked to promote respect and diversity in their classrooms.
“Too frequently at schools, kids are known for doing the wrong things, and simple acts of kindness get overlooked,” said P.S. 276’s middle school social studies teacher Mary Valentine, who spearheaded the Kindness and Justice Challenge. “We can help to create a culture of kindness by taking the time to recognize those things when they happen.”
To kick off the program, Valentine and other school staff shared stories with the students that exemplified kindness or justice.
“I told a story about kids at the school who had come to me to let me know that one of their classmates wasn’t being treated nicely,” said middle school director Pauline David. “I told them that as an act of justice — when you see something being done, even though it’s not affecting your friends, you can still stand up for others.”
“It’s preventative medicine to try to discourage bullying,” explained Erica Weldon, P.S. 276’s parent coordinator. “We’re trying to tell them that there’s a difference between tattletaling and being a good citizen to the school.”
The sixth graders are tracking their own behavior by keeping a weekly log of virtuous gestures they make to their peers. On Wednesdays, they create leaves with messages recognizing instances of kind or just behavior, and attach the leaves to a paper tree that’s posted on a billboard in the school cafeteria.
The Kindness and Justice Challenge will culminate with a student-led forum, in which the class will share its most poignant stories with the seventh graders in the school auditorium.
During a break from class last Friday, sixth graders William Martino, Skyler Velez, and Skyler Coffey stopped by the cafeteria to scan the messages on the leaves. One student wrote about how she witnessed someone providing food to a homeless person, while another noticed classmates in a science group inviting a classmate without a group to join theirs.
Martino recounted to Velez and Coffey a recent morning when he prepared breakfast for his four-year-old sister when his mother was ill. “Before [the Challenge], people had doubts of doing some stuff that’s kind,” said Martino. “Now, they’re more open, because they feel more safe because everyone’s being kind now.”
Helping others can boost one’s self-esteem, pointed out Velez. “Some people feel lousy about themselves, that they never do anything right,” he said. “If they realize they’re helping someone else, they may not feel as useless.”
That day, the sixth graders read to a group of P.S. 276 first graders stories that demonstrated acts of benevolence.
Sixth grader Maya Nunez narrated “The Scarecrow’s Dance” to six-year-old Anisha Singhal.
“What do you think was kind?” Nunez asked Singhal.
“That the boy prayed for the farm to be safe,” Singhal replied.
Reading in itself is an act of kindness, said Nunez.
“I enjoy reading to the kids — they get to learn new things,” Nunez said. “When I explain to them what happens, they get the gist of the story.”
The Kindness and Justice Challenge has nurtured a mindset that has become contagious among the students, according to David. “When somebody offered a snack, I heard kids saying, ‘Oh, that’s kind of you,’” she said.
The school hopes to expand the initiative in the coming years by having students partake in local volunteer programs.
“I think we definitely want to think about using advisory [session] as a time to talk about community service,” said David.
