Kindness Curriculum Improves Students' Grades

What if we taught kindness in schools?

Researchers recently tested a 12-week curriculum in six schools in the Midwest where pre-kindergarten kids were introduced to stories and practices for paying attention, regulating their emotions, and cultivating kindness. Results of the study suggest that this program can improve kids’ grades, cognitive abilities, and relationship skills.[1]Described in detail in the February 2016 issue of Mindful magazine, the curriculum used creative methods to teach the students the “ABCs” of mindfulness and kindness:

• Attention
• Breath and Body
• Caring
• Depending on other people
• Emotions
• Forgiveness
• Gratitude

The researchers found that“Students who went through the curriculum showed more empathy and kindness and a greater ability to calm themselves down when they felt upset, according to teachers’ ratings … They earned higher grades at the end of the year in certain areas (notably for social and emotional development), and they showed improvement in the ability to think flexibly and delay gratification, skills that have been linked to health and success later in life.[2]Mindfulness and kindness practice isn’t just for adults, but can clearly benefit all of us from a very young age.Peace,Dr. Pamm[1] Laura Pinger and Lisa Flook, “What if Schools Taught Kindness,” Mindful, Feb. 9, 2016.[2] Ibid.