Brighten Your Day

Teacher Creates 'Kindness Crew' To Inspire Students To Spread Kindness

April 22, 2022

A teacher in Louisville, Kentucky is teaching students the importance of kindness — and providing creative outlets for them to practice it daily.

Kindness Rock Garden, Kennedy Montessori Elementary School

Stefany Bibb is a teacher at John F. Kennedy Montessori Elementary School.

She also leads the school's "Kindness Crew". Students in the Kindness Crew often hold door for others, greet students and teachers each morning with posters that have positive messages, focus on being helpful and respectful, and help others to remember to be kind.

Fourth-grade member Aniyah Cox said her favorite act of kindness is giving hugs.

"I like to make people smile and I like to make them smile because it lights up my world and I know it makes them feel warm inside, too," she told WDRB News.

"My favorite act of kindness is being able to hold the door for other people, because it shows that you care about them," said John Johnson, a fifth-grade student on the Kindness Crew.

During spring break, Bibb creating a rock garden outside of the school's building where students could place painted rocks with messages of kindness or happy designs.

Students can keep the rocks for up to one week before returning them to the garden. If students choose to keep the rock longer, they can paint another one and replace the one they took.

"You can also pass your rock down to your friends so you can make them feel happy," Aniyah said.

Bibb hopes these students take the foundation of kindness they've started at Kennedy Montessori and continue to build upon it in the future.

"Nothing you've heard from any of the students, nothing they do, is because of me," Bibb said. "I just gave them the outlet to do what they naturally do. They're naturally kind. There's nothing I can take credit for for how amazing they are and the kindness they spread. I'm just like, 'Here, do what you do'."

Watch the video below.