When a few passionate community members approached members of the Bexley City School District in Ohio with the idea of teaching kindness, they weren’t sure what form it would take, but they knew it mattered.
At the heart of the district’s strategic plan are three pillars: learn with curiosity, demonstrate kindness, and embrace equity. While curiosity and equity had clear pathways in education, kindness felt more elusive.
Jason Caudill and Laura Moore attended the the Greater Good Science Center’s Summer Institute for Educators in 2024.
That’s where Jason Caudill and Laura Moore, two dedicated educators, stepped in. With the support from the Carol Zelizer Stoff Memorial Fund for Human Kindness, they attended the Greater Good Science Center’s Summer Institute for Educators—a transformational experience designed to help educators turn research-backed principles of kindness into action.
What they found at the institute wasn’t just a course on kindness, but an immersive, hands-on deep dive into what it means to create a culture of kindness in schools.
Moore, who acts as the leader of experiential learning and community engagement for Bexley City Schools, researched different workshops and courses that could help with developing a plan to implement more kindness and compassion in schools, and kept coming back to the Greater Good’s Summer Institute because of its emphasis on kindness.
“We’re trying to figure out, as a society, the best ways to be able to help students manage stress,” Moore says. “While I knew kindness was good, I don’t think I had any idea how good it was for you until I attended the workshop.”
Building a culture of kindness
Research on the benefits of kindness is growing, and evidence supports that kindness not only actively reduces stress and improves resilience, but can improve our relationships and mental well-being.
Although it can be difficult to measure the benefits of kindness education programs in schools due to the absence of a conceptual model for studying their effectiveness, research suggests that these programs have the potential to improve school climate and safety, as well as benefit the social-emotional development of students.
Before attending the Summer Institute, Caudill and Moore discussed what a “kindness course” would look like in their district, but wanted to meet with other educators who were immersed in compassion teaching so that they could bring the highest-quality insights and resources back to Bexley.
At the Institute, they received the support of Victoria Powers, Bexley’s school board president, who recognized the importance of integrating kindness into the district’s strategic vision. With her advice, Caudill and Moore built the course with student engagement in mind while giving educators the flexibility to adapt it to their teaching styles and students’ needs.
“We’re setting up the architecture and structure, the layout, the framework for what this could be,” Moore says. “We’re providing an opportunity, then, for the teacher, to come in and be the artist, to work with students to be able to really make it into what it can be.”
“Cultivating Kindness: A Seminar” was officially approved in December 2024 and will be offered as an elective at Bexley High School this upcoming school year. The course is a discussion-based seminar that encourages self-directed learning and focuses on analyzing research on kindness and habitual reflection practices designed to cultivate a culture of learning and growth.
The course is graded based on how well the student follows their own learning plan with goals that they set themselves and the teacher approves, surrounding themes of well-being, joy, and service, as well as participation in reflection activities and discussions. In order to minimize student stress surrounding the course, it is unweighted and will not impact student GPA.
Many teachers and administrators agree that kindness is a vital quality for students and staff to cultivate, but translating that belief into intentional and lasting change is a difficult task that leaves many wondering how we move from belief in kindness to real change.
Challenges and strategies
Implementing initiatives like a kindness course requires overcoming logistical hurdles, scheduling conflicts, competing student priorities, and the time needed to build enrollment.
These barriers can make it tempting to abandon new efforts before they even begin to gain traction, but Moore is optimistic that their district is ready for this initiative.
“I’d be shocked if there’s a ton of people that sign up for it, but it’s not going to be because they don’t want it or need it, or eventually don’t sign up for it,” Moore says. “It’s just because it’s different, and it’s going to take a little bit of time to build.”
Caudill, a high school principal at Bexley, has already seen the desire his students have for creating welcoming and compassionate environments.
At Bexley High School, the Gay-Straight Alliance put Valentine hearts all over the hallway with positive messages for staff and students.
This month, the Gay-Straight Alliance put Valentine hearts all over the hallway with positive messages for staff and students to see, and the Culture Club that works with No Place for Hate, an Anti-Defamation League program, has been identifying ways to spread the message of eliminating hate in school.
For Bexley and other schools embracing this movement of kindness and compassion, the work is far from over, but the progress has been encouraging.
“I think it’s something that our faculty and our students just crave, like people are looking for connections. I think that’s our default,” Caudill says. “When something isn’t working for a student, we don’t assume it’s a math problem or a reading problem. We assume it’s a connection problem, and go and try to figure out how to work on that.”
Lessons for educators
For schools struggling to embed kindness into their culture, it’s important to remember that school culture doesn’t just shift overnight, and it doesn’t happen by accident. It starts at the top.
When students and staff see their administrators modeling empathy and fairness, whether in policy decisions, disciplinary actions, or daily interactions, it fosters a culture where people feel seen, valued, and empowered to contribute.
“Set that tone as a leader,” Moore says. “You don’t need to put up a front of intimidation or harshness. Part of being kind is also knowing that we can all do better.”
Caudill and Moore are still at the early stages of bringing their kindness course to fruition, but credit the Summer Institute for helping lay the groundwork for what it is becoming.
“I don’t think that I had any understanding of the way that [kindness] can reduce stress, or the way that compassion actually has an impact on your overall well-being,” Moore says. “The whole perspective that was offered to us, like its impact on our survival as a species, just completely blew my mind.”
Bringing the class to life has been a deeply collaborative effort, driven by the commitment to making it accessible to every student, not just a select few. From the start, Caudill and Moore have focused on embedding kindness, equity, and curiosity into the foundation of the course rather than tacking them on later as an afterthought.
By drawing on expert insights and curating resources with care, they’ve created a framework that gives teachers the flexibility to shape the program in ways that best serve their students and school community.
As educators across the country look for ways to support student well-being, kindness may be one of the most powerful tools at their disposal. The experiences of districts like this one suggest that, with intentionality and commitment, fostering compassion in schools is not just possible, it’s transformational.
As Caudill says, “If someone doesn’t think they have the community support for this, they’re just not looking in the right places.”
Comments