The California Department of Education in partnership with the Great Kindness Challenge encourages the teachers, staff and students of all schools to participate in the GKC the week of January 25–29, 2021.
The GKC, presented by Kids for Peace, is a global, proactive bullying-prevention initiative that educators and students can use to create a culture of kindness. Using a customizable kindness checklist, every student has an opportunity to practice kindness and make a positive impact.
The theme for this year’s GKC is Kindness Unites. Now, more than ever, our communities need to experience the healing and unifying power of kindness. I encourage you to embrace the GKC as a powerful tool to celebrate diversity and champion our common humanity. It is through the cumulative effects of sometimes small acts of kindness that we can begin to counter bias, bullying, and racism.
The Great Kindness Challenge works in tandem with the CDE initiative Education to End Hate. The initiative was designed to empower educators and students to confront the hate, bigotry and racism rising in communities across the state and nation. The GKC supports this effort by providing positive solutions and resources that actively engage students, staff, families and communities in creating a culture of kindness, compassion, acceptance and mutual respect.
Join the 15 million students from over 28,000 schools in 115 countries who participated in the GKC during the 2019–20 school year. Let your schools know about the challenge and sign up at http://www.greatkindnesschallenge.org to get instant access to the free online GKC tools (including GKC toolkit, checklists, translations and more).
