Creating Kind Communities

I once had a pro­fes­sor from the Philip­pines at the Aus­tri­an Cen­tre for Peace Stud­ies who would open each class by say­ing, “Find the peace with­in your­self, so you can take care of the world!” I began try­ing out his invi­ta­tion, tak­ing a moment or two before each group I worked with to find my own sense of peace — a sense of calm and bal­ance — so I could bring a peace­ful self to my group. It helped me not only “be the change” I want­ed to see in my stu­dents, it made me real­ize the impor­tance of the ener­gy I bring to any group or task. As more of us start our morn­ing togeth­er this way, we find our­selves see­ing the gifts and strengths in our stu­dents, rather than focus­ing on their deficits. We also begin to see more clear­ly our own strengths.

Add to this a reach­ing out in a car­ing way to rec­og­nize and appre­ci­ate oth­ers in our com­mu­ni­ty — our class­room, school, or larg­er com­mu­ni­ty — and some­thing new begins to hap­pen. Teach­ers and stu­dents expe­ri­ence excite­ment, imag­i­na­tion acti­vates, cre­ativ­i­ty kicks in, trust begins to build, belong­ing is tru­ly expe­ri­enced, and moti­va­tion is unleashed.  Help­ing first our­selves (as they say on the air­plane) and then focus­ing on the needs of oth­ers are pri­ma­ry build­ing blocks to cre­at­ing a community.

In a school in Belle Plain, Min­neso­ta, stu­dents and teach­ers alike came alive togeth­er dur­ing “Kind­ness Week” — an all-school focus on the pow­er of kind­ness — reach­ing out to one anoth­er in acknowl­edge­ment and sup­port. Sim­i­lar­ly, a group of stu­dents in Fin­land let their kitchen crew know just how much they had learned about nutri­tion, grow­ing fresh veg­eta­bles in the school gar­den, and prepar­ing a meal. They cooked a lunch for the staff and all ate togeth­er that day.

Seek­ing peace with­in our­selves and oth­ers and reach­ing out in ser­vice to oth­ers help nur­ture the whole child in the stu­dent and the whole adult “on the rug” in the teacher. It helps us find new parts of our­selves by momen­tar­i­ly get­ting beyond our­selves in cre­ative efforts. It helps us find that High­er Ground we’ve been talk­ing about — that place that brings joy in see­ing some­one else thrive or be appre­ci­at­ed, that place that uses our imag­i­na­tion and cre­ativ­i­ty. Let’s find addi­tion­al ways to give our stu­dents room to find their calm space, use their imag­i­na­tion, let loose their cre­ativ­i­ty, and think of how we can make another’s day. We will dis­cov­er more of our iden­ti­ty and build a thriv­ing com­mu­ni­ty in doing so.