Lower School students show compassion during December

Each month, the Lower School chooses a character theme as a way to introduce younger students to the idea of charitable acts. The emphasis is to help shape a narrative for them in regard to what role they play in society. In previous months, the respective themes were integrity, responsibility and perseverance. In December, the character theme was COMPASSION.

Compassion is how we treat ourselves and others; it can be seen by:

• how we choose our words and actions
• how we choose to be kind even when others are NOT
• how we forgive easily  
• how we are friendly to someone who needs a friend
• how we embrace cultural differences
• how we help others who are less fortunate
• and how we look for ways to help in our community

During that month students contributed to society and parents were encouraged to read “Tomorrow’s Changemakers; Reclaiming the Power of Citizenship For a New Generation”. They posted pictures and comments of their child showing compassion on our Farragut Facebook page or Instagram.

To help realize all the impacts that were made, the acts of compassion were displayed using what Head of Lower School Anita Fine describes as the “Compassion Chain.” When parents or teachers heard or saw that a student had shown compassion they wrote the student’s name on a strip of paper to make a paper chain that stretched all the way down the walkway of the Chapel.

Here are some of the stories from students making a positive impact on the world:

• PreK student, Max S., volunteered for over five hours at Daystar Life Center handing out toys to children and worked an assembly line packing canned goods for families in need. He was by far the youngest volunteer and never stopped working.
• 2nd grade student, Katie L., helped in the Mess Hall at Farragut without being asked by cleaning up tables and picking up items off the floor everyday.
• 4th grade student, Traveler C., worked with his church and Build-A-Bed to bring beds to families in need.
• 4th grade student, Sophia B., made Christmas cards and sent them with Christmas gifts to children in need in South America who live in less fortunate conditions.  
• 7th grade student, Gabriel L., packed boxes for Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian International Relief organization.

These students only represent a handful of students in the Lower School who went above and beyond to show compassion towards others.