Spreading the Message of Kindness in Schools

There were seven pencils, each snapped into two in anger. Having done the deed, Ng Jie Chong, a Springfield Secondary 1 student sheepishly admitted he now has 14 pencils for his daily use, double what he originally had.

At Pei Tong Primary School, sash-wearing students cheerfully greeting other students and their teachers are a common sight. “It really brightens my day,” said the school’s value education coordinator Mrs Nusraat Begum Akbar Ali. Over at Woodgrove Secondary School, cats – often portrayed as being coldly independent and aloof – ironically were used in a musical to illustrate the importance of respect and kindness.

Students from these three schools took centrestage at Pei Tong Primary on 27 October, when they shared the results of creative ideas fuelled by the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) over the past few months. Other schools, too, can look forward to a new SKM funding initiative aimed at supporting students and teachers who champion the values of care and consideration. This Seed Kindness Fund will provide up to $1,000 for student-led projects and $3,000 for teacher-led initiatives that promote a kinder way of life in and out of the classroom.

Journal of a personal journey

Jie Chong, who now has 14 pencils following a fit of anger, revealed that the act was a way to channel away anger without hurting anyone. “It worked for me”, said the self-confessed former hothead, who found his solution to taming his temper in a journal on anger management developed for students at Springfield Secondary.

Distributed to all Sec 1 students at Springfield Secondary, the journal is an interactive activity book that encourages students to express their thoughts on kindness in a creative manner. Sterling Goh Hong Zheng, for one, finds inspiration in the selfless courage of Thor, so it’s no surprise that his copy of the journal features the name and signature hammer of the comic book hero on its cover.

Inside, the ‘Doodle Journal’ contains tear-out sheets on which students can pen messages to cheer up a friend, pages with prompts to record “dreams worth recording”, “happy phrases” and snippets of advice such as the anger management tip picked up by Jie Chong. According to Mr Tay Kok Seng, the school’s Community Involvement Programme (CIP) coordinator, students have welcomed the opportunity for self-expression afforded by the journal, which was a test bed initiative supported by the Seed Kindness Fund. The school can find lasting inspiration in students such as Sterling who, in his Doodle Journal, has jotted down his dream of emulating his hero and growing “a heart of gold.”

Ambassadors for kind acts

Pei Tong Primary has also roped in every pupil to kindle a culture of kindness. Each child is given a ‘passport’ with 35 ‘acts of kindness’. Whenever a pupil performs a kind deed, he or she can ask a teacher to tick off the ‘act’ and after chalking up ticks, receives small tokens of appreciation and recognition as a ‘Kindness Super Hero’.

Fourteen pupils, at least two from each level, have also been appointed as Kindness Ambassadors. They get to wear a sash bearing the words ‘Have You Been Kind?’ that identifies them as such.The title comes with immense responsibility, as the Ambassadors are expected to take the lead in showing acts of kindness and encouraging their schoolmates to do likewise. A blog, ‘Kindness Corners’ in every classroom and a competition to design a school kindness mascot and slogan, ‘Kind to self, kind to all’, were among the other activities carried out under the Kindness@PT banner. Mrs Nusraat revealed that the school plans to further empower the Kindness Ambassadors who will be able to endorse their schoolmates’ good acts in their kindness passports.

Kitty learns about kindness

“Here kitty, kitty, kitty” is not what you would say to a kitty at Woodgrove Secondary. The ‘feline’ protagonist in the school musical Meow & Owner for Me, named Kitty, was showered with love by her owner but did not appreciate her good fortune. The musical ended with the cat being pregnant and all alone, yearning for everything she had lost through her own fault.

Despite spending many hours on rehearsals from April through August, the students who made up the cast and production crew felt that all their hard work was well “worth it” after hearing thunderous applause from their schoolmates after the musical’s debut. For weeks after, their friends would good-naturedly call them “Hollywood stars” to acknowledge their compelling performance.

For Sec 1 student Nur Nadia bte Zainuddin, who played Kitty, the experience offered a reminder of the importance of giving and receiving kindness. After all, she mused, Kitty ended up in dire straits because she “did not appreciate her owner’s kindness” and failed to respect both herself and others. Having made a rousing start to the Kindness Movement with the show, the school is seeking to reinforce the lessons of the musical through its Life Skills and Character Development programme.