One of the most tender responses to the horror in Newton, CT came from newcaster Ann Curry, who first proposed that in honor of the 20 children killed, individuals commit to doing 20 acts of kindness in their honor. This idea has, as they say, “gone viral,” with the number of acts raised to 26 to honor all who were killed that day. With the Twitter hashtags #20Acts and #26Acts, it is inspiring acts of kindness, big and small.
Here’s the story. I’m not having luck getting it to embed here. So just click on it, OK?
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/50242088#50242088
When I looked at the website and watched the video, in addition to being touched by the beauty of so many individuals trying to bring light into the darkest of situations, I was struck by the creativity of the varied ways people choose to show kindness, all over the world. Who would ever think that a senseless shooting in Connecticut would lead to a young person in Indonesdia getting a bicycle helmet? But it did.
As so many classes come back after the holiday break, it seems that creative kindess could be in order. If your students are talking about the Sandy Hook shootings, using your creativity to devise 26 different ways the class could show kindness can help young people process the unthinkable and bring light and power into the situation. If your students have already found some distance from Sandy Hook and you don’t want to disrupt their return to normalcy, using flexible thinking to devise creative ways to show kindness is a great New Year’s activity. What better way to bring in a new year than finding many ways to bring joy to those around us? And of course, these activities are powerful for family efforts, as well.
In proposing 26 ways to show kindness, Ann Curry asks, “Are you in?” I am. How about you?
