Update: November 2017
Read the November update from Making Caring Common and don't forget to sign up for our monthly newsletter to get updates straight to your inbox.
Join our new campaign to help young people create a better world
Our country is in crisis. As we navigate this time of sharp disagreement and work to bridge divides, we invite you to join Making Caring Common’s new national campaign to mobilize schools to prepare young people to be constructive, caring community members and citizens who create a better world.
To join the campaign, we are asking schools to commit to taking a new action step that advances at least one of the following goals: deepening students’ care for others and their communities, reducing excessive achievement pressure, and/or increasing equity and access for all students in the college admissions process.
The deadline to join the campaign as an early leader is December 15. Email highschools@makingcaringcommon.org if you have any questions.
In the news
Making Caring Common was featured in a range of publications for our research on romantic relationships, raising caring kids, college admissions, and leadership bias.
Our favorite quote this month was during Rick Weissbourd's interview with NPR's Tovia Smith. Rick said, "We are failing epically to have basic conversations with young people about the subtle, tender, generous, demanding work of learning how to love." What do you think?
Read more:
The New York Times: The Bad News on ‘Good’ Girls
The New York Times: What Colleges Want in an Applicant (Everything)
U.S. News & World Report: How to Talk to Young Kids About Consent and Harvey Weinstein
Highlights: 2017 State of the Kid Report
NBC’s Education Nation: 2017 Survey: Kids Want a Kinder World
For more information and resources, check out our website, and be sure to follow Making Caring Common on Facebook and Twitter to join the conversation online.
Help us make caring common this holiday season
You probably already know that Making Caring Common helps educators, parents, and communities raise children who are caring, responsible to their communities, and committed to justice.
What you might not know is that our work is funded through grants, individual donations, and partnerships. We rely on your support to turn our commitment to caring into research, campaigns, and actionable and effective strategies for educators and families.
Support our work this holiday season by making a gift today!
Announcing the KIND Schools Challenge finalists
We’re excited to announce the ten finalists for the 2017-18 KIND Schools Challenge, which encourages 6th-12th graders to make their school communities kinder and more inclusive. The finalist teams were selected out of more than 190 applications from 28 states (plus Washington, D.C.). We were blown away by the wide range of impressive student proposals, from projects that focused on small acts of kindness to those that proposed large-scale events.
Read more about the finalist projects and follow their progress on Facebook and Twitter this winter and spring.
Staff picks
Hannah Steinhardt has been leading our KIND Schools Challenge while pursuing an Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology at HGSE, so it's only fitting that she would recommend the Kindness Calendar from Action for Happiness. With suggestions like "pay for a stranger's hot drink in a cafe" and "leave a happy note for someone else to find," the calendar is a great nudge to bring more cheer to the holiday season — and beyond.