I feel like in society we have been seeing a lot of what children are not doing right. I am thinking in particular of the bullying events we have seen in the press lately. While I agree that this IS a big problem in schools, it’s nice to see kids behaving the way they (and we) should.
Yesterday I arrived at the playground early to pick up my kindergartener. As my younger son and I neared the school, we saw a group of elementary school kids (probably 3rd or 4th graders) running laps around the field.
As I got closer and sat down on a playground bench, I realized that they were running a timed mile. The kids were, as expected, running at a variety of different paces. One child stuck out in particular. He was the only overweight child in the class and he was lagging far behind everyone else.
What I saw next made me want to cry. Rather than celebrate their finish, the rest of the kids in the class started to cheer on their peers that were still running, including the child in last place. In fact, I heard them cheering for him more than anyone else!
Even though it was time to go, a group of kids decided to go back and run the last lap with this child, cheering him on the whole way. Rather than teasing him, they were so encouraging and supportive, it really did bring tears to my eyes. It also made my heart swell with pride.
As they walked back into the school, I thought to myself how we could all stand to learn from their benevolent behavior and sportsmanship. They made my day!
LOVE this so much 🙂
It makes me so happy to see little kids being kind to each other (even more so when they’re my own kids!)