Spreading Kindness and Sharing the Warmth

This year, in honor of World Kindness Day on November 13, the Gold Room assembled bags for individuals who are unhoused or experiencing homelessness.

Our school is primarily composed of students in financially stable homes. Broaching the topic of wealth inequality is an important opportunity to foster empathy, to broaden perspectives, and to nurture social responsibility in young children. By explaining the topic in terms the children can relate to – such as focusing on the feelings of safety, love, and belonging that a home provides – the teachers can create an emotional connection that goes beyond the abstract concept of “being unhoused” or “homelessness”.

Student: You would be cold without a hat.

In the classroom, the teachers read a number of books with the children about hunger and poverty.

After discussion, they decided to create bags of supplies and food to hand out to unhoused people. The teachers worked with the families in their classroom to collect materials, and then the children helped assemble the bags. Each bag contained cold-weather supplies such as hats, socks, and hand warmers, along with some non-perishable food items and toiletries.

Families from the Gold Room and the rest of the PSA community were invited to pick up a couple of bags to keep in their cars and distribute them anytime they see someone at a stoplight or anywhere else who could use one. This is a tangible and safe way to model kindness on a complex and complicated issue.

We hope the children will come away with an early understanding that the world is diverse and that being part of a community means caring for others, no matter their circumstances.