Kind is cool
published 22 Dec 2007
This year I almost succeeded at staying away from malls during their unholy hours—from about early afternoon all the way to closing time. One makes worse decisions when one is sweaty, exhausted and dizzy from being part of a crowd.
I’m lucky, too, because my schedule at work frees up my mornings for most other activities, domestic functions or otherwise. So if I really have to get anything at all, I can be at the mall when it opens, when the sales clerks have just made their faces up and are friendlier, less irate.
I said almost because just the other day I had an emergency and had to get yet another something for the kids on short notice. Department stores extend their hours in December and so, even after closing two pages of the opinion section, I was able to get to the store a good 15 minutes before it closed.
Right away, my attention was caught by a long queue. I counted 30 people there. For a while I thought it was the cashier and thus entertained second thoughts at making my purchase. Then I realized it was the gift-wrapping counter. I was stunned: Don’t people wrap their own gifts anymore?
***
Christmas is a time to be kind. But it isn’t the only time to be so.
My children’s school, Montessori Academy of Valenzuela, started its Random Acts of Kindness campaign two months ago. It was launched with poster- and slogan-making contests where students expressed their understanding of the concept.
I found it rather odd because RAK sounded too commercial, like a line from a movie. And indeed, a casual chat with a school official, Ms. Sandra Jean Concepcion, revealed that the idea actually dawned upon them after watching the movie Evan Almighty. In the movie, God asks the main character to change the world through one act of random kindness at a time.”
Wikipedia defines a random act of kindness as “a purportedly selfless act performed by a person or people wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual, or in some cases, even an animal. There will generally be no reason other than to make people smile, or be happier…”
The school’s campaign program runs along these lines. In the kids’ values classes, they are encouraged to “plant seeds of kindness” by being considerate to their classmates.
They are requested to log the kind acts done to them and by whom. The goal is to give more kind acts than what is received. Eventually, the good deeds are extended to other people in the school, at home, in the community. Ms. Concepcion points out that the performance of every day responsibilities does not count. One is of course expected to make one’s bed or keep one’s closet clean. Random acts of kindness are a bonus, something one does not have to do.
Today, too, the school is renting an SM cinema for its Christmas program. On the front seat will be “special guests”—orphaned children whom each class is supposed to adopt for the day. The idea is to give the children not just the usual food and gifts, but the experience of being entertained—not by clowns, mascots or movie stars, but by children like them. After all, it is a time to be merry. Kids will be kids. No matter what their situation is, they will play and dance along to popular tunes.
***
In preparation for this article, I tried asking some 12- and 14-year-olds what came to their minds when the phrase “random acts of kindness” is mentioned. From a boy I got a scowl and from two girls I got giggles. A seven-year-old was more articulate: ’yung gagawa ka po ng mabuti sa isang tao…
It appears older children are not too keen on talking about these things outside the classroom. Maybe we’ve been either too preachy or too cheesy (I think the old term is “corny”). The challenge, then, is to make the students stop thinking of the campaign as an ordinary school activity. It should be just as present in the home. In the end, nothing beats a good example—especially if it’s kindness you want to teach.
And you know what the best gauge of this exercise will be? It’s when acts of kindness come naturally, and they are not random anymore.