Lessons You Can't Get in a Book

Today we are thrilled to share with you a story from Stamford teacher Christine Nealy. Read on to hear how she used the unspeakable tragedy of Sandy Hook to empower kids with love and kindness. We are in awe! – Rachel

I consider myself to be very blessed; I have a family and friends whom would do anything for me, my health, and a job that I love. Ever since I was little, I knew I wanted to be a teacher, and I am really lucky because I know not everyone loves their job as much as I do.

The Sandy Hook tragedy hit me very hard, not because I was directly affected or that I even personally knew anyone involved. I’m not sure why it was so hard for me, maybe because I’m a teacher, or I’m from Stratford, home of the amazingly heroic Vicki Soto, or because it was a horrific, preventable tragedy, or perhaps because now my job will never be the same…

I teach fifth graders who aren’t exactly from the best circumstances. They are good kids, but they need guidance and direction. As fifth graders, they understand what happened that day in Newtown. They also have questions and concerns that I have tried my best to deal with. It isn’t easy to explain to a bunch of 9 and 10 year olds that you, as a teacher, will do anything to keep them safe.

As the first anniversary of that awful day approached, I struggled over how I wanted to approach it with my class. I decided that the best way to go was to roll with the motto that has been reiterated since that day, “Love wins”. What better way to celebrate the lives of 26 beautiful people taken too soon, than to do good in the world in their honor. Therefore, I approached my kids with a letter about RAKs. RAKs are random acts of kindness, and the weekend of December 14th, that was our homework assignment.

As promised to my kids, I woke up on the snowy Saturday of December 14th and headed out to do my own RAKs. I cleared off some neighbors’ cars, bought coffee and donuts for the car behind me at Dunkin, and helped an elderly woman carry her groceries. I was feeling better about the day and I smiled to myself, wondering if any of my kids were doing the same thing.

Monday came and I was excited to hear about some of the RAKs my kids did over the weekend. Little did I know, as they have done time and time again, they blew my mind with their kindness and desire to help others.

As we sat in a circle and began to share our RAKs, I struggled to choke back my tears, as each of my 21 kids, many of whom have very hard lives themselves, shared the selfless things they has done over the weekend.

I had children who shoveled driveways for their neighbors, cleared the sidewalks at their parents’ local store, handed out ponchos to people waiting at the bus stop and walking, brought coffee and donuts to people working outside, walked a sick aunt’s dog, donated money, made ornaments and passed them out to people in their apartment building, visited sick neighbors, made cookies for neighbors who have lost their husband or wife, made bracelets in Sandy Hook colors and gave them away to people, and gave hugs and smiles to people all weekend. We were so motivated, that we each even picked a staff member to write a card to and do a RAK for in the upcoming weeks!

They shared how they felt, and how as wonderful as it was for other people, they felt so good about themselves too. They even talked about how they wanted to do RAKs every weekend and share the idea with others. We also discussed how the world is really full of good people, unfortunately we hear mostly about the bad, but they now understand that the world isn’t mostly evil, it’s mostly good, and they want to be a part of that good. There is no lesson I could teach them that will ever be more important than that.

Once again, our thanks to Christine for sharing her story and for her incredible work with kids. We’re also so proud of the kids for their awesome RAKs! Way to go!

Know someone doing something awesome? Let us know!