Last Wednesday our advisory teachers passed out a piece of paper with 50 “Kindness Challenge Check Marks” on it, and Monday marked the start of the “Great Kindness Challenge.” I originally didn’t think about it very much, and tossed the paper into my bag. Later that night, however, I was thinking about it and realized that there is one flaw: kindness comes from the heart, not from a piece of paper.  

If someone gave you a paper to read, lab report-style, and it explained how to love, and to love someone, it probably wouldn’t work right? Unless maybe you were a robot, but love, (like kindness) is something we feel deep down.

Weird analogies aside, if someone truly does a kind act it is because they wanted to. Aristotle wrote, “helpfulness [is] towards someone in need, not in return for anything, nor for the advantage of the helper himself, but for that of the person helped.”

I understand what Aristotle is saying but I also think that making others happy, makes us feel happy. Basically, we do kind things to help others, and that positivity can be spread around. I encourage random acts of kindness throughout the day. Why? Good karma, right?

The only problem is that Sage Creek gave these papers to high school students. Mature, serious, hard working teens… right? No. Excuse the hasty generalization, but most students aren’t, and haven’t taken this challenge seriously. Teachers here have also been supporting the movement. In first period, my history teacher gave us all a pink note card to write something nice and slip into someone’s backpack. If you’re playing along, read challenge two, “Slip a Nice Note in Your Friend’s Backpack.”

It’s funny, because when I opened my backpack after first period, I found a pleasant note (on that same pink card) saying “I’m Pregnant and it’s Yours.” Needless to say, I do not think students are going to take this challenge seriously. Either that, or someone got the wrong backpack and has some serious problems to attend to.

Besides, just read the name: “Great Kindness Challenge.” Should kindness be a challenge anyway?  Being nice shouldn’t be hard. I’m all for Kindness, it’s nice to be kind, but do it all the time, not just this week. People should do it because they want to, and because they truly mean it.