A Kinder Way Forward

Isaac Broadbent is a school counselor at Daybreak School in South Jordan, Utah, and a former Daybreak student himself. When Broadbent stepped into a leadership role four years ago, the school’s biggest challenge wasn’t bullying. It was a pattern of small, cutting remarks — snarky jabs and casual meanness that didn’t rise to the level of a referral but still left marks. The school’s response was direct: when Broadbent and the leadership team revamped their schoolwide expectations, they made kindness rule number one.

Students practice the skills behind that rule through lessons like STOP!, ART of Apology, and The Courage to Be Kind. Each week, teachers recognize a student from their class who has demonstrated one of the school’s expectations. Each month, those students are celebrated in an MVP parade: families line the hallways, classes file out to cheer, and the honorees walk the corridor to applause. “The kids just beam,” Broadbent says.

One of the year’s most memorable projects turned the school itself into a reminder. Students were asked to do an act of kindness for someone they didn’t know well and write what they did on a paper snowflake. Hundreds of snowflakes were hung along a central hallway. “Every time the classes would pass through that hallway, the kids were always just looking up,” Broadbent says. “It really brought the school together.”

The results are showing up in both the data and in how the building feels. Discipline referrals, both major and minor, have dropped significantly compared to the same period last year. Panorama survey results show a 9% increase in students’ sense of belonging between two survey windows. And staff have noticed without being told. “People have mentioned that this is just a happier place to be,” Broadbent says. “District visitors have come by, and every single one has mentioned that it just feels different in this school.” The pattern at Daybreak is different now. It’s kindness—in every student, every day.