Skip To Main Content

horizontal-nav

Breadcrumb

header-container

logo-container

logo-image-color

logo-image-white

right-container

right-top-container

right-bottom-container

search-container

Choose Kindness

The Spotlight

Choose Kindness
By: Chatom Arkin, English/Literature Teacher and Dean of Students


Just down the street at Lincoln Elementary, on their back chain link fence that restricts outside visitors from accessing their playground fields, they have a dixie cup arrangement that reads “Choose Kindness.” I love that. Choose kindness. Whether that community is family, friends, school, work, the world, kindness is a choice. There’s so much power in that choice. What a wonderful privilege! How many other things can you truly control in your day?

In the middle school, we teach our students that acts of kindness matter. We teach them that they have a responsibility to perform these kind acts. Several years ago, we created “positive infractions” that recognize students for their good deeds on our campus. We call these “Caught Being Kind” and “Really Respectful.” Teachers catch our students helping the community from a place of benevolence, and then they put these positive infractions into the portal. As Dean of Students, reading and sharing them with families is probably the best part of my week. Here are some examples:

A classmate could not find her literature book in class, and Quinn jumped at the opportunity to help her out. Quinn went and found her book for her, which helped her classmate immensely! I appreciate Quinn's thoughtfulness and kindness towards her peers. Awesome job, Quinn!”

“One of the students in my first 8th grade class of the day had forgotten his Science binder on his way out the door. Noah's class section was next to have Music, and he was very helpful by taking the binder to him so that he would not have to make the trip back down to my music room. Very kind! Thank you, Noah!”

“Cole did his part to keep the 6th grade locker areas beautiful by picking up some discarded trash. I appreciate students like Cole who take pride in their school and are willing to do their part to keep the campus beautiful.”

“Anton noticed that his classmate left his water behind during class and kindly offered to bring it to him in the next period. Thank you for being kind and helping others, Anton!”

We teachers at Harbor Day pride ourselves on teaching our students that their actions matter, and that communities appreciate intentionally good behavior. Most of them wake up in comfy homes, with comfy amenities, and around comfy people. We want the students to recognize not only the importance of giving back but also the benefits of deliberate goodwill. Our faculty loves reminding students that they matter, and they can make their community better with their kind deeds. We love reminding them to “Choose Kindness”.