As a parent, we look forward to teaching our children about kindness and the consequences that come without it. We read books, we redirect their behavior when not in line with our principles, and hope that everything we are doing will be fruitful.

One of the big reasons why I love Nathan’s school is because of their IB learning profile. They pride themselves on teaching beyond a basic education education by teaching our children to be inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, CARING, risk-takers, balanced and reflective in everything they do.

Wow. right. If our child could just have half of these, the world would be a better place. But this post is not about our children. It is about us, as adults. I think somewhere along the lines, as adults we can become comfortable in our places, and we stop growing. In the last couple of years, my family has begun a different educational journey. We stopped being part of the preschool years and entered Nathan’s long journey of education. But in the process, I’ve discovered that there is a lack of kindness coming from adults.

When did we lose our ability to show kindness? This was my question for a very long time, but it dawned on me last night as I cried myself to sleep over a heavy disappointment, that it is not that we lost our ability to be kind, we have simply not given it its proper time. We have stopped being mindful of our surroundings and focused in on ourselves. In the world of social media and its impact on peoples views of themselves, we have become blind towards others and redirected our view upon ourselves.

Kindness takes work. It takes initiative. It takes looking beyond ourselves and looking outside our peripheral. It takes waking up in the morning and thinking for 2 seconds how we can be kinder, and how our actions can have a positive ripple effect. And it also takes us actively choosing to look towards the good.