Kindness in the Classroom
A unique SEL (Social Emotional Learning) curriculum designed to easily implement the themes of kindness, compassion and empathy directly into existing school curricula. With one unit of study for grades K-5, each unit is made up of 6 lessons, one building on the next.
Our Impact to Date
Educational Stakeholders
Curriculums in Use
Did you know?
Happier children have
greater academic success.
Students who performed acts of kindness with their peers, families and in the community had greater academic success than those who simply recorded seeing acts of kindness over a span of three months (Price-Mitchell, 2013).
Building self-value
circumvents depression.
An estimated 2 million 12- to 17-year-olds experience clinical depression annually, and Reivich and Gillham (2009) have found that building resilience in younger children can help thwart depression before it starts.
More kindness
= better life.
Experiencing and performing acts of kindness provide an increased sense of self-worth, greater happiness, and optimism, as well as a decrease in feelings of helplessness and depression, is achieved (Luk, 2001).
Want to read more positive and negative statistics about kindness?
Some Testimonials
What Educators Are Saying
"The flexibility embedded in the lesson allows teachers to differentiate instruction to address children's strengths, interests and needs, allowing great opportunities for self-expression and individualization."
“The organization of each Unit’s lesson plans provide an ease with which lessons are understood and can be implemented, offering a clear connection in how lessons and Units build upon one another.”
"I am a mom to 10 year old boy/girl twins and Life Vest Inside has changed the trajectory of their life. I know that they are kinder, more thoughtful people because of this organization.”
When educating the mind of our youth, we must not forget to educate their HEARTS
Our Curriculum
Life Vest Inside works to cultivate the awareness that children can affect real and positive change in the people around them, simply by ‘living kindness:’ by embodying empathy and compassion in our day-to-day lives. Through research and development, Life Vest Inside has designed the Kindness Curriculum to intentionally align with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Bloom’s Taxonomy to promote kindness, tolerance, and social interaction to our children.
The curriculum currently includes Units of Study from Kindergarten through Fifth grade. The curriculum is unique in that it functions as a seamless curriculum to complement and enhance instruction for teachers, unlike “push-in” curricula, requiring teachers to “make time” within a school day to accommodate additional learning objectives not reflected in the CCSS.
Each Unit, designed by experts in the field of education, includes six lessons. Each Unit builds upon the prior, so by the end of Fifth grade, students will have received almost forty lessons to enhance their understanding of, and ability to, think critically about ways to generate more kindness on an individual and global level.
Educational Findings
The LVI Kindness Curriculum provides a framework for scaffolding immersive experiences using critical thinking skills focused on kindness with the goal of benefiting not only the student and teacher, but also the community. Research studies on the implementation of curricula rooted in kindness, aligned with the CCSS and linked to Bloom’s Taxonomy are currently not available. Thus, this curriculum, and the research conducted throughout its design and implementation, provides fertile ground for developing a students’ and teachers’ school experiences, beyond the four walls of the classroom to grow kindness individually and globally.
Research conducted with over 300 educational stakeholders, throughout the design and inclusion of the LVI Kindness Curriculum revealed 5 significant themes leaving the LVI curriculum a one-of-a-kind experiences for teachers and students.
Our Philosophy
Life Vest Inside wishes to transform the way people see themselves and interact within society by changing the way we educate and prepare educators. Transformation is not about doing away with our educational system but shifting the way we deliver the information.
The Life Vest Inside Educational Curriculum, built upon character development and core values, will connect students’ school learning seamlessly to “real life” learning based upon the guiding tenets of 1) kindness, 2) compassion, and 3) empathy.
Educational Findings
The LVI Kindness Curriculum provides a framework for scaffolding immersive experiences using critical thinking skills focused on kindness with the goal of benefiting not only the student and teacher, but also the community. Research studies on the implementation of curricula rooted in kindness, aligned with the CCSS and linked to Bloom’s Taxonomy are currently not available. Thus, this curriculum, and the research conducted throughout its design and implementation, provides fertile ground for developing a students’ and teachers’ school experiences, beyond the four walls of the classroom to grow kindness individually and globally.
Research conducted with over 300 educational stakeholders, throughout the design and inclusion of the LVI Kindness Curriculum revealed 5 significant themes leaving the LVI curriculum a one-of-a-kind experiences for teachers and students.
Our Philosophy
Life Vest Inside wishes to transform the way people see themselves and interact within society by changing the way we educate and prepare educators. Transformation is not about doing away with our educational system but shifting the way we deliver the information.
The Life Vest Inside Educational Curriculum, built upon character development and core values, will connect students’ school learning seamlessly to “real life” learning based upon the guiding tenets of 1) kindness, 2) compassion, and 3) empathy.
The Issue
- 77% of students have admitted to being the victim of physical, verbal, or cyber bullying
- 1 out of every 4 children will be bullied at some point. (American Justice Department)
- Adults who were bullied as teens have higher levels of depression and poorer self-esteem than other adults
- 30% of bullied students reported depression.
- 11% reported serious thoughts of suicide or suicide attempts
- 19% of those who frequently bullied others reported experiencing depression
- 8% reported suicidal thoughts or attempts
The Solution
- Fostering and promoting empathy in children and adolescents could relate to the development of pro-social behavior and to the prevention of aggressive behavior.
- Kids with high levels of empathic concern tended to view bullying as negative and therefore bullied others less.
- Among the six points of the Character Education Partnership is to “Replace Current Beliefs or Behavior: Teach bullies how to act differently—how to be KIND. Develop empathy, conscience, and self-control (anger management) in bullies.
