Our USO world tour of America took us to Pensacola this week. We had a great series of presentations and the kids were very receptive and left each presentation brimming with new ideas about ways they could help support each other.
During one of the presentations, the kids really dug deep to share their feelings and some of the struggles they were experiencing. I was so proud of them because it takes a lot of courage to express heartfelt feelings in front of a big group of kids.
I told them I wished some adults could learn from the hard work they did in the presentation that day as they described how bullying made them feel or how they felt bullying someone else.
After the kids had left and we were packing up our sound equipment, one of the teachers came back to the presentation room to talk to me. She had tears in her eyes.
She said. “You won’t believe what’s happening in my 4th grade classroom right now. Half the kids are crying because they now realize that they have not been nice to some of their classmates. Some of them are feeling bad about bullying other kids. A few of them feel awful about leaving other kids out. It’s truly amazing they’re all apologizing to each other and working together to form a caring community. Right there in my classroom! I was so touched and emotional I had to come and tell you. Thank you so much. I will never forget this.”
I was so happy to hear that the kids took the message from our presentation and implemented some of the strategies we share with them right away. In essence, without waiting for instructions, those kids started a positive peer-to-peer community right in their classroom, all by themselves! And I know some lives were changed as they discussed how to support each other and how to positively enhance their world by being a kinder and more compassionate class.
Copyright © 2013 The Comfort Crew
