Pictured: Carmel Clay High School teacher, Sarah Wolff.
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We have all had those challenging days that have fortunately been turned around thanks to receiving a kind word from a loved one, friend, or relative stranger.
Recently at Carmel Clay High School in Indiana, ceramics teacher Sarah Wolff and her class were given a challenge to perform a random act of kindness at the school. Put forth by the school’s counselling department, the challenge had a $20 budget and needed to reach all students.
Wolff’s class accepted the challenge, and subsequently aced it. Together, they printed out a series of positive messages to tape onto the lockers of all 5,100 students. These notes would feature impactful phrases like “Today is the start of something great,” “You are loved,” and “You don’t need a reason to help people.”
Although some of the students involved feared that the notes would be disparaged or disregarded by their fellow schoolmates, the opposite wound up occurring.
“It’s very heart warming to see all the people’s reactions in the hallways,” said student Andrew Morozov, who added that the notes were praised and celebrated by many.
For Wolff, she is proud of the initiative her students took, and hopes that this exercise brightened the day of at least one person.
“Whether you’re going through a hard time or not, anybody can benefit from a positive message during their day,” commented Wolff in an interview with WXIN. “I told my students that if one of the 5,100 kids went home and made a better choice that day, or felt loved when they otherwise [wouldn’t have] because of a message you did, then this was worth the 90 minutes of time we put into it.”
-Adam Grant
