Week 5: Look For Ways to Help Others

Each time I head to Oyler Elementary, I hope the children will want to participate and accept my ideas, and yet every week, I am shocked at how much they already know.  I feel like my job is to reiterate the positive aspects of growing up, leading, and being a professional.


This week, we discussed the idea of helping others.  When I posed the question, "How do you help others?", every hand immediately was thrust into the air.  The obvious answers of cleaning the house, helping dress younger siblings, cleaning the car, carrying in groceries were very common.  I was shocked to hear cooking dinner and doing laundry.  As a 19 year old living away from home, these two statements make me feel pathetic.  I eat every meal in the dining halls, and my mom cleans my clothes each week.  These 6, 7, and 8 year old children were doing me than me!  


We also discussed the act of helping is much more important than the amount of helping.  Simple things, such as arriving on time, helping the elderly, and holding doors for others are easy, yet can turn around someone's day.


Each week, I try to stress the importance of kindness and treating others with respect.  Some of the children can't seem to grasp this concept, so I will continue to preach that winners don't bully others, yet they treat them with dignity and respect.


I'd say this was a successful lesson, and my students now know that they need to Look For Ways to Help Others!  No matter how small the act of kindness, it is important to complete it.  

Life’s most persistent question is, ‘what are you doing for others?' -Martin Luther King