Each year, the Kind Club at Spring Valley school invites students, teachers and staff to write Kind Pledges.
The club is a student organization dedicated to promoting self-respect and kindness toward others in the school and the community. The Kind Pledges program is in partnership with Kind Campaign, an internationally recognized nonprofit organization that highlights the effects of girl-against-girl bullying. Kind Pledges are made to remind the writer to make good changes in the world.
Spring Valley faculty member Maggie Claunch explained the goal of the kindness-focused programs.
“Many researchers believe that the bullying and social anxiety students face often correlate with grades and their academic experience overall,” Claunch said. “Our goal is to simply start an open and honest dialogue about the numerous struggles we face and empower us to break down social barriers, lean on each other and create positive change.”
Additionally, a group of seniors at Spring Valley School are making calls to local shelters, including Jimmie Hale Mission, to repurpose large Chick-fil-A delivery bags left over from catered school lunches. Students have also made it a weekly routine to take out the trash from teachers’ classrooms.
Spring Valley School is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory school for grades one through 12. Its mission is to provide excellence in education for bright students with learning disabilities, such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia and ADHD.