{"id":10063,"date":"2015-03-11T18:22:58","date_gmt":"2015-03-11T22:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=10063"},"modified":"2015-03-11T18:22:58","modified_gmt":"2015-03-11T22:22:58","slug":"kindness-campaign-gets-kids-out-of-comfort-zone-building-foundation-for-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/kindness-campaign-gets-kids-out-of-comfort-zone-building-foundation-for-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Kindness campaign gets kids out of comfort zone, building foundation for future"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was the last Wednesday of the month, but February 25 was a bit out of the ordinary for Hartman Public School students Alexa and Solanna.<\/p>\n

It was Pink Shirt Day, the growing anti-bullying movement, and heading into their assembly that day, the girls were surprised there were more boys than girls taking the plunge to don the uniform of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised, but happy at the same time,\u201d says Solanna.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think no matter what gender you were, it didn\u2019t matter,\u201d adds Alexa. \u201cYou just wanted to make a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solanna and Alexa were just two students at the forefront bringing both the anti-bullying campaign, as well as \u201cSay My Name Canada\u201d, a one-month kindness challenge into their school and the results, they say, were palpable.<\/p>\n

Say My Name Canada was launched at the end of January, with a song to underscore the importance of tackling bullying. Through the campaign schools and the community at large were encouraged to focus on acts of kindness while keeping track of what you were doing to make the world a better place.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, kindness is being there for someone,\u201d explains Solanna. \u201cKindness is also an act that shows who you really are because the way you act when you\u2019re kind could also be a huge part of you, even if you do it rarely. If you have the choice of being right or kind, choose kind. Even if you are right, kind is always the best way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a message imparted on the students by teacher Jenn Grant. When Principal Stephen Helston approached her with the idea to foster the campaign within their walls, Ms. Grant says they both saw it as a great initiative to spearhead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole purpose of this is to remove barriers and try to get everybody on the same page in thinking there are no barriers and there are no limitations when everyone is thinking and acting accordingly, and comfortable in their own space,\u201d says Ms. Grant. \u201cWe want everyone to feel like they belong and are part of a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

In delivering this message to students, Ms. Grant faced a number of questions. Some, she said, believed being kind is an expectation, but the idea is to \u201cgo above and beyond what is expected of you as an individual.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found that everyone was on board with being kind, and we also had follow-up activities afterwards asking [the students] that now that the activity was over how it impacted them,\u201d she says. \u201cWe had some students say, \u2018we wouldn\u2019t normally talk to this student, or that student\u2019 and you realise that even though he might not have been his best friend, it kind of brought us closer together as a family and a team at the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond this, kindness was also measured in the halls of Hartman in a very tangible way. As the campaign gained traction, each classroom would post acts of kindness on their doors and bulletin boards for all to see. Mr. Helston says the level of spirit displayed by students has been \u201cabsolutely magnificent.\u201d<\/p>\n

These acts were compiled in to a six minute video created by staff and presented to students. In anticipation of it unspooling for a spirit assembly, he said it will drive home just how involved the students were and the positive legacy it has left behind. <\/p>\n

Asked to pick a favourite, he selected one from a Grade 1 student named Sydney. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt just said, \u2018I stood up to the bully and helped my friend,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cI think people really now have a better understanding about just how it important it is to be kind \u2013 and how easy it is. We embrace a growth mindset in our school and we focus on positivity too. What do our words and actions say about our character? Character education at Hartman has always been a really basic tenet of what we do in our school.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the last Wednesday of the month, but February 25 was a bit out of the ordinary for Hartman Public School students Alexa and Solanna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2Cj","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-11 02:33:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2015-03-12-06.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}