Assistant Principal - Pastoral Care

Sunday 13th November was International Kindness Day. Awareness days are a chance for us to stop and think about a cause. It makes me feel rather disappointed that we need to have an awareness day for kindness. This is something that should come naturally and be innately embedded in everything we do. Kindness allows us to connect with other people and build meaningful relationships. When someone shows us kindness, we feel connected and more willing to cooperate with them. 

Witnessing acts of kindness produces oxytocin, occasionally referred to as the love hormone, which aids in lowering blood pressure and improving our overall heart health. Oxytocin also increases our self-esteem and optimism, which is extra helpful when we’re anxious or shy in a social situation.

I feel Brooke Jones, (Vice President, The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation) certainly gives us food for thought in her blog:-

‘Humans spend so much time and energy focusing on the negatives that affect us. When a moment of kindness appears, it’s as if a fog has been lifted... just for a moment. It’s lovely. It makes us feel good. We smile. But, then the fog rolls back in and we go back to ‘the norm’ of our daily lives. We don’t put in the effort to truly appreciate and reflect on those moments.’

Brooke Jones goes on to say how we do so many things in our daily routine such as waking up, getting dressed, cleaning our teeth or our commute to work. All of these are intentional and we ensure we do them everyday… our invisible routine.

‘What if we added a moment of kindness to our invisible routine? What if we woke up and as we turn the alarm off, we immediately send an uplifting text message to a friend? Or during the morning commute, what if we let that guy merge into traffic with a wave and a smile instead of feeling upset or slighted?’

Teaching children kindness is one of the most important things we can pass on to the next generations. Promoting kindness starts by being good role models in how we show kindness to each other, ourselves, and how we interact with our environment.

Being kind can improve other people’s lives. In turn, it can increase the well-being of those who practise being kind. Promoting kindness in children will give them a skill that will bring them happiness and empower them to make the world a kinder place.

Unfortunately I am seeing an increase in the amount of unkindness that is being displayed online. Cyberbullying is the use of mobile phones, instant messaging, e-mail, chat rooms or social networking sites to harass, threaten or intimidate someone. Cyberbullying is often done by children, who have increasingly early access to these technologies.

Sadly the following statistics are what we as teachers and you as parents and carers are dealing with:

44% of Australian young people report having a negative online experience in the last 6 months, this includes 15% who received threats or abuse online.

Source: The digital lives of Aussie teens, eSafety Commissioner (2021).

If you are a parent or guardian you can report serious cyberbullying to eSafety yourself – if you know your child has been targeted by harmful content, and the site, game or app has not helped within 48 hours.

As ideal as it may sound, if only we could all be kind to each other and intentionally include acts of kindness into our daily routine.

Until next time: