Sacred Heart School students are learning the large impact a small act of kindness can have on another person.
Rachel’s Challenge is a nationwide program started by Darrell Scott who was inspired by his daughter, Rachel, the first victim of the Columbine High School shooting in 1999. The concept is that small acts of kindness every day can make an impact on someone’s life, hopefully leading to a more positive society and less bullying.
“I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same,” Rachel wrote in a school essay, available to read at www.rachelschallenge.org. “People will never know how far a little kindness can go.”
Sacred Heart began its Rachel’s Challenge in January with an assembly and workshops from a Rachel’s Challenge presenter. SHS counselor Sherry Buckley said she wanted to bring Rachel’s Challenge to Sacred Heart because it offered a more proactive approach to bullying and it is student-driven.
“This program stood out to me because it was proactive by instigating a proliferation of kindness,” Buckley said. “It’s not about the staff preaching to the kids what not to do, it’s different because it tells them and teaches them what they can do. It’s all about empowerment. We don’t realize the power that we have to make a positive impact on other people’s lives. And it doesn’t take much effort.”
For students kindergarten through fifth grade, each classroom was challenged to become a Rachel’s Room of Kindness by completing 50 acts of kindness, guided by Rachel’s five challenges. The acts of kindness are represented through links in a paper chain. Once the 50 acts are completed, the class is rewarded with a Popsicle party. Next, classes are asked to complete the Super Challenge by doing another 50 acts for a total of 100, which is rewarded with a movie day.
Elementary teachers said at first the students were focused on being recognized for doing something nice. As the days progress, that focus has shifted to simply being kind to one another.
“At first it was really funny to watch them because they would just do a little something and come up to me and say, ‘Mrs. Dove I did this! Did you see me do this?’ So we made a big deal, ‘yes I saw you do that,’” kindergarten teacher Jeanine Dove said. “What’s fun now is they’re not so interested in making sure that other people are seeing what they’re doing but they’re just doing it.”
Older students can volunteer to be part of Friends Of Rachel (FOR) Club, and they serve as the “kindness ambassadors” for Sacred Heart, Buckley said. The group meets with Buckley twice a month to discuss who they think at SHS needs a little extra support, but doesn’t discuss that person’s personal business.
Roughly a month into the program, nearly 50 students are members of FOR Club. Some of their acts of kindness are as easy as leaving compliment notes on lockers, but the members also sit with elementary students during all-school masses to build relationships between grade levels.
When speaking with the Democrat last week, third grade teacher Robin Williams, fourth grade teacher Gloria Close and Dove had more examples of their students’ acts of kindness than can fit in a single article.
Two weeks ago, Dove had early morning duty and there was a third grade girl who was obviously very sad and sitting by herself.
“One of our high school girls who is a member of the FOR Club, she was coming through the cafeteria and she saw this little girl at the end of the table and she immediately went up to her and talked to her,” Dove said. “… She asked if she could take the little girl and they went down the hall and the older girl had her arm around the younger girl. I thought that was so great, that older girl observed that.”
Fourth grade and fifth grade eat lunch together, but one day fifth grade wasn’t there, so Close was by herself at the teacher table.
“All of a sudden one of my students stands up and he goes, ‘Hey, Ms. Close! Come on over here. Sit with us, you don’t need to sit by yourself.’ And I thought, that’s kind of cool,” Close recalled. “That was one of the things of Rachel’s Challenge, when you see someone alone invite them in. And we had the best lunch, just chatting away about football and other things coming up.”
Last week there was an incident in the boys’ restroom where some giggly boys were daring each other to throw one of the boys’ toys in the toilet. Williams said she didn’t want them to tell on each other, but rather wanted that student to come forward. After school, two boys approached her with something to share, which she said was so mature for a pair of third-graders.
“The one boy says, ‘OK, you need to tell her’ to the other boy and you could see he was so emotional and trying to hold it together,” Williams said. “He eventually says with prodding from the other boy, ‘I’m the one who did it.’ Well he had thrown his own reward into the toilet, and he was so upset. The cool part was the boy who came with him had talked him into telling me about it and had gone along. When he got finished telling me, the first boy said, ‘Now don’t you feel better?’”
The three teachers said they’ve seen an impressive maturity from their young students and a new awareness of those around them. Dove said she starts each day by talking about one of Rachel’s five challenges and discussing what her students can do that day to be kind. Close said she incorporates the theme of Rachel’s Challenge into some of her lessons.
While the Rachel’s Challenge organization is not religious-based, some SHS teachers said incorporating the kindness curriculum is also helping younger students better understand their Bible teachings with modern and tangible examples. Dove said when her students saw kids like them completing acts of kindness in the initial video presentation, they began to understand those Bible stories a little more.
In addition to the students becoming more aware of being kind, the teachers are becoming more aware too. Williams said she is making more of an effort to point out when her students do something kind, no matter how small, to recognize that child and to encourage more kindness.
SHS’s challenge ends April 7, but Buckley said she plans to continue FOR Club as long as she is the school counselor and she is using the Rachel’s Challenge themes in her monthly elementary class visits.
“I was just overwhelmed with the number of kids who said ‘I want to be a part of this,” Buckley said of FOR Club. “I was so proud of them and so excited that they realize the power and potential of this program.”
For more information about Rachel’s Challenge, visit www.rachelschallenge.org.
