This week's featured book, Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson (@JackieWoodson), deals with a real life problem - things don't always have happy endings. However, we can take life's realities and learn from then.
This is the story of Maya, the new girl to the school. Maya's clothes were old and ragged. The girls in the class ignored Maya. The weeks passed, and the kids continued to whisper and talk about Maya and how she was different. Whenever Maya asked the kids to play, they said 'no.'
One day, Maya didn't show up for school. Ms. Albert the teacher brought in a bowl filled with water. The kids talked of kindness. They gathered around her desk and watched as Ms. Albert dropped a small stone into the water. The tiny waves rippled out. "This is what kindness does." Ms. Albert said. "Each little thing we do goes out, like a ripple into the world." Then Ms. Albert let the kids drop the stone in as they told her kind things they had done. "I stood there holding the rock in my hand, silent." "Even small things count," Ms. Albert said. "I couldn't think of anything."
The next day Maya didn't come to school or the next or the next. "Each kindness make the whole world a little bit better," said Ms. Albert. Maya's seat remained empty. "Maya is not coming back," Ms. Albert says. "That day, I walked home and thought of all the kind things I wished I would have said to Maya...but never did."
Maya never returned and the chance of kindness became more and more forever gone just as the ripples in the water traveled out and dissipated. What will you do differently today to spread kindness like a ripple into the world?
This is the story of Maya, the new girl to the school. Maya's clothes were old and ragged. The girls in the class ignored Maya. The weeks passed, and the kids continued to whisper and talk about Maya and how she was different. Whenever Maya asked the kids to play, they said 'no.'
One day, Maya didn't show up for school. Ms. Albert the teacher brought in a bowl filled with water. The kids talked of kindness. They gathered around her desk and watched as Ms. Albert dropped a small stone into the water. The tiny waves rippled out. "This is what kindness does." Ms. Albert said. "Each little thing we do goes out, like a ripple into the world." Then Ms. Albert let the kids drop the stone in as they told her kind things they had done. "I stood there holding the rock in my hand, silent." "Even small things count," Ms. Albert said. "I couldn't think of anything."
The next day Maya didn't come to school or the next or the next. "Each kindness make the whole world a little bit better," said Ms. Albert. Maya's seat remained empty. "Maya is not coming back," Ms. Albert says. "That day, I walked home and thought of all the kind things I wished I would have said to Maya...but never did."
Maya never returned and the chance of kindness became more and more forever gone just as the ripples in the water traveled out and dissipated. What will you do differently today to spread kindness like a ripple into the world?
RSS Feed
