Kindness retreat offers ‘gift of a day’

The Bryant Elementary School gymnasium was awash with song, laughter and dance moves Tuesday morning. After sharing high fives, engaging in thumb wars, building human trains and running dramatically away from pirates and mutant sharks – in slow motion – fifth graders settled into small groups to talk about kindness.

“Our goal is to teach them how best to be kind,” said fifth grade teacher Penny Hudson. “Kind words; kind actions; kind thoughts.”

For six years, Hudson and fellow teacher Sarah Hanhan have been tackling the issues of bullying and standing up for others through the annual Kindness Retreat, provided by Youth Frontiers.

“We feel it is so important to take the time to develop character in our students,” Hanhan said. “Youth Frontiers gives us the opportunity to take time out of our busy school schedule to address issues that specifically affect our fifth graders.”

The non-profit group, based in Minneapolis, provides programming for elementary, middle and high school students designed to create a more positive school community. Retreat directors address a wide range of topics from bullying and exclusion to tattling and respect. Last year, the group held more than 600 retreats for more than 90,000 students and educators.

“Our mission is to change the way young people treat each other,” said retreat director Megan Lee-Erickson.

The staff practices what they preach. Tuesday they were handing out high fives, dancing along with students and greeting everyone cheerily by name.

“What we really like is the kids are treated with the same level of respect,” Hudson said. “Today everybody’s included.”

With the help of retreat directors and a team of Superior High School seniors, the youth first broke the ice, than sat down in small groups to identify issues.

The small groups are critical, Lee-Erickson said. Kids talk about what’s going on at the school, connecting with others in their class, not just their best friends.

The retreat director sat down with Hudson and Hanhan before the retreat to find out what problems class members are dealing with each year.

“If you’ve got kids that maybe aren’t fitting in real well with others or they’re having clashes with friends, they hit on those issues with stories,” Hudson said. “And they make them real fun, and of course, relate back to when they were that age.”

The stories this year concentrated on the different types of bullying – verbal, physical and silent – and ways to combat it.

“So they learn through a story and then, from there, they learn skills that they can use with their classmates” as well as out in the community, Hudson said.

The day-long event includes time to reach out to others.

“The Kindness Retreat gives students an opportunity to thank someone for being kind, as well as apologize to someone for a moment of unkindness,” Hanhan said. “It is truly a gift of a day.”

Last year, a number of the fifth graders got to pass on the lessons they learned as members of the Kindness Group.

The new group worked with Bryant counselor Carolyn Haney, brainstorming ideas which they wrote into a skit.

“And then they performed it in each of the classrooms and got to talk a little bit about what they learned,” Hudson said. “Giving them tips, you know, kids in the school – here’s how I can be a hero, here’s how I can handle a bully, here’s how I can belong and include everyone.”

This year, the teachers hope the group will again form to share their lesson in kindness.

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