I wanted to share a thought from the Principal's Message of the Westmore Elementary's newsletter. I thought it was so cool that it became our FHE lesson last Monday.
In light of the recent attention of bullying in schools and among children in general "the bucketfilling philosophy" is being shared with each class, and as parents we are encouraged to talk to our children and help them apply these principles at home and in our neighborhoods.
So here it is....(taken from "Westmore World" Nov. 2010)
The bucketfilling philosophy teaches that everybody carries an invisible bucket. The bucket represents a person's mental and emotional health. Students learn that people are happy when their buckets are full and sad when they are empty. We fill another person's bucket when we express kindness and perform kind acts. A kind person is a bucket filler. Bucket fillers make our homes, neighborhoods, and schools a better place to be. We believe children must be taught how to love others. As we learn to express kindness and love, we lead happier lives. When we fill other people's buckets, we fill our own bucket too.
There are also bucket dippers-people who try to take good feelings or thoughts by dipping into another person's bucket. A bully is a bucket dipper. Students need to understand that bucket dippers often have an empty bucket and think they can fill their buckets by dipping into someone else's. Children need to know how to deal appropriately with bullies without becoming a bucket dipper too. Our goal is to create a culture where kindness, respect, thoughtfulness, and good will toward all prevail.
I love this! I love that they are teaching this in school. This is what we all should be teaching our children in our homes...to love one another. Unfortunately there are many homes where these principles are not taught. That's why I think it is so great that such a simple yet important lesson is being introduced to our schools.
We spent our family home evening talking to our children about being bucket fillers not bucket dippers. We also had a great experience working together raking the leaves of a neighbor in need. My neighbor has been a bucket filler to me and it felt so nice to repay a little of her kindness.
Anyway, I just thought it was a great message and one worth sharing. Lets all be "Bucket Filler's", okay!!!
3 comments:
I think it is great that they talked about being bucket fillers at school. My kids talk about it all the time. What a great message!
It's sad that they need to send a message like that to get things to change. It shouldn't be like that in first place...I'm so glad that you took it as an opportunity. That's GREAT parenting. Even as an adult there seems to be a lot of the bucket dippers in our lives. I love this analogy, makes a lot of sense. Thanks for opening my eyes today :). I am trying my best to be a filler, not a dipper :).
My daughter's 1st grade class has buckets on the wall, and they get filled with pom poms for good deeds, listening, kindness, etc...This went along with a book they read.
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