Generosity

(During the summer months, I like to take the A-Z Challenge and come up with words alphabetically and see how they apply to education. I think it’s a great exercise for teachers and students to give this a try.)

Generosity means willing to give or share. This may be giving money, time, or skills.

For many of my students with special needs, they feel that people look down on them and see them as useless. With a disability, they feel like second-class citizens and inferior to others.

I spend a lot of time trying to tell them that if they act this way, that is how people will see them.

Just because someone has a disability doesn’t mean that they can’t be generous to others.

I let my students brainstorm ways we can be generous to others.

Here are some of the things that we have done:

• Collect food for a food bank.
• Visit a nursing home.
• Make flag pins for veterans on Veteran’s Day.
• Write encouraging notes to others.
• Pick up trash around the school grounds.
• Help an elderly person with some difficult chores.
• Create a flower bed on school grounds and maintain the bed.
• Make public service announcement videos to share with other students.
• Maintain a bulletin board in a hallway.
• Make a display for the library.

After doing these activities, my students realize that they have a lot to give to others. They are just as good as anyone else and can help others. It goes a long way to restoring their pride and helping them feel good about themselves. The more that they do, the better they feel.

I’m so proud of my students when they start looking for other ways to help people without any prompting.

How do you encourage your students to be generous with others?

Photo by Elaine Casap on Unsplash