Inspired by….Random Acts of Kindness

A few years ago, I was browsing in a bookshop for inspiration (something I won’t take for granted after the lockdown!), not necessarily for teaching ideas but just looking for something new. I happened across a small book called ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ by Danny Wallace. The book had a short introduction which included the following simple message ‘undertake a random act of kindness for a stranger when you can’… I bought the book and read it quickly, instantly realising that I could use this in my Key Stage 3 RE lessons….

The book was originally written in 2004 and some of the things suggested might not be welcomed perhaps as much now as we have become a more suspicious and cynical society – so the suggestion to ‘Hug an estate agent’ or ‘smile at the person in the car next to you’ might lead to interesting conversations with law enforcement, however many of the other simple suggestions struck a chord including ‘Bring a Friend’s pet a treat’, ‘Ask someone more questions than you answer’ ‘take your glass back at the bar’ and ‘anonymously pay for someone’s food in a café’. I started to think that taken in isolation these events may seem daft but what if the person who benefits was having a bad day? Would this little act help restore them a little?

I started to think about my students who were often needlessly picky with each other, I would spend far too much time asking them not to do something when I could in fact now encourage them to do something positive – I taught my next lesson to a particularly unpleasant Year 8 group (unpleasant in the fact that they just seemed to loathe everyone and everything even sometimes RE!) using examples from the book and challenged them to take a look at their lives. This led me to set them a task – by the time I next saw them they must have attempted a random (safe) act of kindness for someone at home and someone in their class who they didn’t usually bother with.  I also encouraged them to be kind to their maths teachers who had a daily battle with them.

I waited until the next lesson rolled round wondering if they had indeed had a go or whether they would be unaltered – I was amazed. We spent half the lesson sharing stories and ideas, recalling the reactions from those they helped and reflecting on how these acts made them feel. I also had several maths teachers asking what had happened as the class were unusually responsive

Since then I built a ‘random acts of kindness’ lesson into each year and tied it in with other areas like charities and environmental action campaigns… we went on to look at the work of charities and how money was spent, what we could do locally and how/why helping people we don’t know is an important part of human life

When I rolled out some of these ideas at teacher networks and conferences we decided to look at a variety of organisations committed to raising awareness and improving the lives of others both locally and around the world. One we looked at was ‘toilet twinning’ and how much we appreciated having our waste removed!

We then recognised that many of the major faiths and worldviews encouraged followers to look after those around them and around the world, we looked at key texts that encouraged kindness and considered why these might have been necessary at the time of writing – this helped to draw links between the context of when the words were written and the need for these to be acted upon today, recognising that although times may change, the need to look out for others remains, this starts small in our own area and ripples out to reach a wider audience.

Such a small book which included small achievable kindnesses left a mark on me and hopefully on many of my students who will have benefited from making and receiving such kindnesses. Sometimes we wait for others to lead us when in fact we can do a lot to improve the lives of those around us with small acts. As Gandhi said, ‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’. It starts with us.