Recently, Project Why received a donation from a school in broken cartons and torn plastic bags.
We received books with pages missing, copybooks with not a single blank page, and unwearable clothes. The clothes were not washed let alone ironed and some were torn.
Students had been asked to donate what they didn’t use anymore: school books, bags and clothes gone too small. The children gave abundantly, because children are generous by nature, a feature that needs to be fostered by positive example.
Our questions can be very simple: should this have happened?
Did the school staff and the parents step back to imagine how a child receiving these would feel?
This was an opportunity the parents and the school could have used to demonstrate to their children how an act of charity should be made. What is certain is that charity is a two way street. When you give something you also need to give a bit of yourself. The children from both sides lost an opportunity to experience giving and generosity.
If all the clothes were wearable and folded, all the books and notebooks usable and intact, the cartons taped and the bags sealed, what would the children at that school have learnt? Was this a missed opportunity here to educate our children, on both sides of the divide?
Do you have any ideas about how this could be done? How do you teach compassion to your kids? How did your parents teach you? Share your stories and comments.
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