MS Focuses On Benjamin Values During Kindness Week

The Middle School celebrated “No Name-Calling Week” the week of January 18. The week emphasized the importance of kindness and engaged students in educational activities and discussions aimed at ending name-calling and bullying of all kinds. 

 

The week, led by middle school student services counselor Kari Rankine, was inspired by the novel “The Misfits” in which a group of students organize a similar day at their fictional school. 

 

“Motivated by this simple, yet powerful idea, the ‘No Name-Calling Week Coalition’ organized an actual ‘No Name-Calling’ Week in schools for the first time in 2004. The event is now held annually in schools nationwide,” said Rankine.

 

An assortment of quotes about kindness were placed throughout the middle school campus along with a “Kindness Garden” where students posted messages about ways in which they had been kind to others. 

 

Students participated in a hashtag challenge, generating hashtags like #Kool2bKind, in an effort to promote the initiatives of the week.

 

“Students also explored the role that forgiveness and compassion play in moving forward once name calling and bullying have occured,” said Rankine. “It is my hope that we can use this week to share and learn from one another while working to achieve our goals of advocacy and bringing our 12 Benjamin Values to life.”