More Than Just Academics: Teaching Kindness

Sarah Pennington (Montana State University, USA) and Ann M. Ellsworth (Montana State University, USA)
Copyright: © 2020 |Pages: 102
EISBN13: 9781799858621|DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-2971-3.ch008
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Abstract

This chapter addresses how the authors, two former elementary school teachers, discovered that their students needed lessons in how to treat fellow students with respect and kindness. Now working in teacher preparation, the authors reflect on the importance of actively teaching kindness. They argue that teaching children to be thoughtful, kind, and considerate is every bit as vital as teaching them the three Rs—Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic. From experience, they know that helping children develop an ethic of caring for others is not learned from lecture or posted rules. Rather, it is learned from observation and with encounters of what kindness looks and feels like. In their college classrooms, they share these stories as a way to help young teachers understand that once they are in a classroom of their own, they will be education the whole child.
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