Pass It On Pledge

 

                     

 

Compassion

What is compassion?

• Compassion is the desire to ease others' suffering.
• Compassion is a sympathetic awareness of another' distress combined with a desire to alleviate it. Kindness and caring are shown.
• Service and generosity are ways that compassion can be demonstrated.

Kind compassionate children:

• Recognize and express appreciation for others' talents and skills
• Put others' needs before their own
• Help others because they want to
• Listen and provide sympathy
• Show kindness without expecting rewards
• Tell and show others they care
• Share
• Recognize and help those less fortunate than themselves
• Try to make the world a better place

You show compassion when you ...

• Comfort a friend whose mother has been taken to the hospital
• Bring blankets and food to a family in need in your community
• Volunteer at a senior citizen nursing home
• Take action and stop someone who is being cruel to an animal
• Listen when people confide in you
• Help out at the Special Olympics
• Bring ice cream to a friend who has had his or her tonsils removed
• Can understand why your best friend is depressed about a divorce
• Send a donation to help people starving in a foreign country
• Tutor a younger child who is having trouble in school

Tips on becoming more compassionate and caring

• Be a good listener
• Look people directly in the eye when they speak
• Look for kids at school who are being left out and inviting them to join in activities
• Stick up for someone being teased
• Each week, do one nice thing for a friend or family member

Proverbs and maxims

• The course of human history is determined, not by what happens in the skies, but by what takes place in our hearts. (Sir Arthur Keith)
• Never, if possible, lie down at night without being able to say: I have made one human being, at least, a little wiser, a little happier, or a little better this day. (Charles Kingsley)

More quotes on compassion and kindness

• Kindness gives birth to kindness. (Sophocles)
• Be nice to people on your way up because you'll meet them on your way down. (Wilson Mizner)
• Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read. (Mark Twain)
• Kindness in words creates confidence. (Lao-tzu)

Heroes and heroines

• Dalai Lama - is the spiritual leader of Tibet who continues to speak of forgiveness, justice, and living together in harmony.
• Mother Teresa - worked in the slums of Calcutta, India, helping and nursing the poor and sick. She had a great reverence for human life.
• Jane Addams - founded Hull House, a settlement house for the poor, and worked for child labor laws, safe working conditions, better housing, and women's suffrage or right to vote.
• Father Damien - became a resident priest for those suffering from Hansen's disease on Molokai.

Put compassion into action

• Be friendly to someone who needs a friend.
• Do helpful things at home without being asked.
• Be generous with your time and your belongings.
• Create and participate in a litter control program.
• Plan and participate in food drives.
• Look for ways to help in any situation without being asked.
• Put someone else's need before your own.
• Look for ways to help in your community.
• Try to understand why a family member or friend is sad.
• Forgive someone who has hurt you.
• Talk with your family about the problems of the homeless and find a way to help.
• Try to understand someone who you disagree with or don't like.

Community service ideas

• Recycle aluminum cans. Put the money earned into a local food bank.
• Offer to help an elderly neighbor with their chores.
• Take a meal to someone who is ill.
• Write a letter or send a card of compassion to a victim of some recent tragedy.
• Create a school bulletin board where students and teachers can recognize people who have demonstrated great compassion.
• Choose a historical figure who represents compassion. Write and perform a short play about the person.

Cooperation

What is cooperation?

• Cooperation is the common effort of a group for their mutual benefit.
• Cooperation is teamwork.
• Cooperation is working together peacefully.

Team players are students who:

• Listen
• Encourage their peers
• Allow and invite others to contribute their talents and skills
• Follow as well as lead
• Recognize their strengths and use them for the common good
• Treat others equitably
• Recognize the needs of the group
• Think before acting
• Communicate calmly
• Put competition aside

You show cooperation when you ...

• Work in a small group to accomplish a task
• Allow each person in a group to have a say
• Try to use everyone's ideas
• Do your fair share of the work on a project
• Pitch in at home doing chores
• Play a team sport and work toward a goal
• Work with your friends to help clean up
• Participate on a student council committee

Proverbs and maxims

• The more cooperative the group, the greater is the fitness for survival which extends to all of its members. (Ashley Montague)
• There is no more sure tie between friends than when they are united in their objects and wishes. (Cicero)
• We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)

More quotes on cooperation

• Better bend than break. (Scottish proverb)
• We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. (Martin Luther King, Jr.)
• On this shrunken globe, men can no longer live as strangers. (Adlai Stevenson)
• When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion. (Ethiopian proverb)
• A single arrow is easily broken, but not ten in a bundle. (Japanese proverb)

Heroes and heroines

• Dag Hammarskjold was Secretary General of the United Nations and practiced "quiet diplomacy" to reduce conflict between countries.
• Margaret Mead was a well-known anthropologist who introduced the concept of culture into education and promoted racial equality and environmental concerns.
• The Wright Brothers took years to perfect their flying machine with patient, cooperative experimenting.
• Ralph Bunche was a black diplomat whose efforts led to armistice in the first Arab-Israeli War.

Guidelines for cooperative learning

• Be a good listener.
• Distribute the work evenly among team members.
• Encourage each member to contribute ideas.
• Try to incorporate each person's ideas.
• Treat each person of the group with respect.
• Be open and receptive to new ideas.
• Try to compromise to resolve differences.

Put cooperation into action

• Happily do what your parents ask you to do.
• Play the game your friends want to play even when you rather do something else.
• Help someone by opening a door or helping to carry something.
• Help find a compromise when a group is in disagreement.
• Always play fair when playing games. Be a good loser.
• Invite someone who is alone or "left out" to join your group.
• Help family members realize the importance of family cooperation by demonstrating a spirit of cooperation in your daily activities.
• Become involved in a community service project.
• Ask your friends to help you do something to preserve the environment.
• Practice good sportsmanship.

Community service ideas

• Contribute clothing to a community service organization serving families in unfortunate circumstances.
• Adopt a beach or park and keep it clean.
• Volunteer to help with a project to promote community safety.
• Learn about how you can become prepared to help with disaster relief.
• Make and display posters to help the Heart Association with their campaign for healthy hearts.
• Plan a "share a book day" to contribute books to a children's hospital or after-school

Friendship

What is friendship?

• Friendship is an unselfish concern for the good of another.
• Friendship is your relationship with someone you like.
• "A friend is someone who knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts who you've become, and still, gently invites you to grow."

Children who are good friends:

• Accept others for who they are
• Share their belongings
• Listen
• Enjoy others' company
• Support others in need
• Smile, laugh, and tell jokes
• Avoid teasing and put-downs
• Encourage others with kind words
• Avoid tattling
• Ask for help from their peers
• Solve problems peacefully
• Consider others' feelings before acting

Proverbs and maxims

• Look for the good in people and expect to find it.
• Friendship is the best present you can give.
• Love without friendship is like a shadow without sun. (Japanese proverb)

12 ways to start and strengthen relationships

1. Be a person of good character.
2. Be kind and caring.
3. Be loving and supportive.
4. Be a good listener.
5. Spend time together and share experiences.
6. Recognize when you have problems with others.
7. Be willing to compromise.
8. Talk about your feelings.
9. Don't play the blame game.
10. Try not to judge others.
11. Expand your circle of friends.
12. Be friendly.

Fun ways to strengthen friendships

• Make popcorn balls (or other treats) and bring them to someone new in your school.
• Have a water balloon toss (outside).
• Bring old baby pictures to class and share them.
• Fly kites.
• Start a club.
• Read a play together. Assign different parts to different friends (or ask which parts they'd like to read).
• Have a "read-a-thon" or "music-a-thon" and share your favorite books and music.
• Volunteer together for a worthwhile activity.

Other pointers to make friends

1. Friendliness starts with a simple "hello" so practice different greetings like "hi" or "how's it going."
2. Reach out to others. Join groups, organizations, and clubs. Get a pen pal. Call someone on the telephone.
3. Include others. Look for people who are left out of activities and groups and invite them to join you.
4. Make eye contact to show sincerity and interest in others.
5. Learn and remember names. When you meet someone new, repeat their name.
6. Don't focus on yourself; think of the person you are with.
7. Smile to show you enjoy a person's company.

More activities

• Write a surprise letter to someone you care about and tell how much he or she means to you.
• Read about famous people of the past to learn what kinds of relationships they had with others.
• Visit a local store that sells greeting cards and see what they say to bond friendships.
• Decide what's most important to you in a friend. You might want to do a questionnaire and rank order qualities you feel are the most to least important - family income level, honesty, intelligence, education, interest, kindness, ability to have fun, is law-abiding, loyalty, physical fitness, political beliefs, popularity, cultural background, religious beliefs, so on.
• With your class, debate the most important character trait for a friend to have.
• Survey your class to find out how long friendships last when friends are the same gender or opposite genders, when friends are the same age or different ages, and so on.
• Role-play things you can do in a new school to develop friendships.
• Switch seats in your classroom once a week for 10 minutes so everyone can get better acquainted with each other.
• Create a photography bulletin board about friendships.
• Learn about relationships among animals such as whales, bears, lions, dogs, and cats.

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