Recognizing the Good and Growing More of It

Ervin Carlisle Elementary School in Delaware, Ohio, is growing fast. New housing developments are going up around the district, and the school now serves close to 600 students. Counselor Lexie Nakasian says one of the things she is proudest of is how the existing student body responds to all those new arrivals. “I feel like our students do a really good job of welcoming new kids and making them feel part of the school community,” she says.

The school’s motto, K2RL—kind, respectful, responsible leaders—gives students a shared language for the kind of people they are growing into. K2RL slips are part of daily life. Any staff member can hand one out when a student is caught showing kindness, respect, responsibility, or leadership. The slips go into grade-level buckets, and names are drawn over the intercom for prizes. What stands out most is how students respond to one another’s recognition. “Kids get so excited, not for themselves but for their classmates,” says teacher Savannah Allerding. “They’ll tell teachers and other students, ‘George got a slip for this.’ That’s been really neat.”

Older and younger students are also paired through a buddy system. Those relationships help the building feel smaller and more connected, especially for fourth and fifth-graders, who can sometimes feel, as Allerding puts it, “like an island unto itself.” When students see their buddies in the hallway, they wave and say hello. The connection carries beyond the scheduled activities.

Teach Kindness lessons like Mirror My Feelings and Name the Feelings help younger students notice emotions in themselves and in others. They also give students language to respond more kindly when someone is upset or conflict begins to rise.

That spirit has also started to show up in the ideas students bring forward themselves. Two fifth-grade girls launched Love Letters to Willow Brook, a schoolwide effort to make holiday cards for seniors at a nearby retirement community. Their goal was 450 cards, and the school exceeded it. At Carlisle, kindness is not only something students are taught to notice. It is something they are learning to create.