Kindness celebrated at American Academy
American Academy students at the Castle Pines campus gather to play together and demonstrate kindness. (Left to right): Neel Gowda, Cole Felton, Christopher Caid (CP), Nicholas Hartl and William Staab.
By Liz Rector; photos courtesy of American Academy
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted,” stated famous Greek storyteller Aesop. Although he was born in 600 BC, the importance of kindness has not diminished in the last 2,617 years.
Understanding how precious kindness is, and wanting to promote it, American Academy (AA) recently wrapped up its annual Kindness Week. The purpose of the week’s activities were to provide “opportunities for students to learn more about what it means to be kind, how our compassion can positively impact those around us, and (to) be able to participate in several kindness-generating activities that can be used to spread kindness to others,” read the kickoff newsletter.
One way AA students showed kindness was by doing something nice for others – like reading a book to the class during story time.
Spearheaded by the AA counselors, the week began with the school handing out kindness cards to each student so that they could record their kind acts in order to share and celebrate them at the end of the week.
In addition to the kindness cards, students participated by dressing up for different spirit days during the week. As the theme of kindness carried on each day, students also participated in classroom discussions, recess/study hall activities, spirit days, the Kindness Counts Challenge, and signing the Kindness Pledge.
Although Kindness Week has drawn to a close at AA, the value of kindness and the lessons learned throughout the week will hopefully continue to make an impact at AA and beyond. 
One way AA students showed kindness was by doing something nice for others – like reading a book to the class during story time.
Students had the opportunity to dress up as their favorite superhero for spirit days in order to inspire super kindness!
