Cool to Be Kind
We are very pleased at Hanford this month. We have won an award! But more of that later. Spring is in the air and certainly we hope it will be bringing kinder weather.
We had a discussion in morning chapel at the beginning of March about the wind which, at the time, was making itself known with gusto. The girls talked about how the wind can cause all sorts of problems, blowing off roof tiles, uprooting trees and spreading rubbish to name but a few. They also came up with several ways in which the wind has a positive effect. How would seeds disperse, they asked, if not for the wind? They talked about energy from the wind, and this led to them doing some useful research.
Of course, it being Hanford, the girls also talked about how riding up a hill then cantering over the top, allows the wind to blow right through you, leaving you exhilarated, breathless, laughing. It’s a personal spring clean!
Spring cleaning is a marvellous thing. Getting rid of clutter is so satisfying and the pleasure from clear surfaces is deep. However, if you are anything like me, it doesn’t take long for them to clutter up again.
Back to that morning chapel discussion and I asked the girls what they could fill themselves up with once the wind had cleared out any internal clutter.
They came to an agreement that filling themselves up with kindness would be a great plan. This was music to my ears as, like all schools, we want everyone to be kind to each other, to show compassion. Confucius said that being kind to others makes us wise, and we could do with a bit more wisdom in the world, couldn’t we? Kindness also makes us strong and resolute too. Kindness isn’t the same as niceness. It’s actively seeking to do the right thing.
As adults, we all know and hopefully have experienced how random acts of kindness really can make a difference to someone’s day. It really is cool to be kind.
However it’s easy to forget to be kind when you are worrying over something, and our kindness muscle can very easily get out of shape or atrophy from lack of use. It’s important, therefore, to exercise that muscle and try to be a little kinder than necessary.
Can you teach kindness? There was a fad a few years ago of schools teaching ‘happiness’ which I felt was rather missing the point. Surely creating an environment where happiness can blossom is more effective. Maybe there are schools where right now pupils are sitting down to a ‘kindness’ lesson. I prefer a more holistic approach where we try and lead by example.
A good school will make kindness central to everything their pupils and are taught.
Over the years traditions have developed at Hanford which help keep that ‘kindness muscle’ in shape.
There are no Head Girls or Prefects, rather all senior girls are members of committees which help the school run smoothly and a key committee is the ‘Undercover Agents’. Their sole remit is to make sure they know how all girls are getting on, find out if anyone is having a difficult time and make sure she is scooped up and looked after. A reward system of ‘Hands Up’ is a favourite tradition - girls who have been kind or thoughtful are given a yellow ‘Hands Up’ sticker which they then stick on a Kindness Tree. Recent stickers were awarded for ‘Being kind and thoughtful’, ‘Being brave before riding’ and ‘Being kind to new pupils’.
There can be little doubt that being kind isn’t only the right thing, but that it makes us feel good too.
Literature is full of miserable ‘baddies’ – just think of poor old Scrooge. However, I don’t know how much research there is about how hard it is to be kind. I can’t pretend that kindness comes easily to us all, at all times, children and adults alike. It can be so much easier to say the wrong thing, to ignore the problems of others, to join in with the gang and that is why schools in particular schools should focus as much on the curriculum of being kind as it does on Maths, English and all the rest.
And so, back to our award.
We have been recognised by The Week magazine as being “Best of the Best at Kindness”. We are really pleased about this because, to us, the most important thing we can teach our pupils here at Hanford is to be kind to each other, to be honest about assessing when something isn’t right and to work towards rectifying the situation. That’s what will fit our girls for the future.
Where Next?
