Dear County and District Superintendents and Charter School Administrators:

The Great Kindness Challenge Week: January 25–29, 2021

The California Department of Education (CDE), in partnership with the Great Kindness Challenge® (GKC), encourages all teachers, staff, and students of child care centers, preschools, and schools to participate in the GKC the week of January 25–29, 2021.

The GKC, presented by Kids for Peace, is a global, proactive bullying-prevention initiative that educators and students can use to create a culture of kindness. Using a customizable kindness checklist, every student has an opportunity to practice kindness and make a positive impact.

The theme for this year’s GKC is Kindness Unites. Now, more than ever, our communities need to experience the healing and unifying power of kindness. I encourage you to embrace the GKC as a powerful tool to celebrate diversity and champion our common humanity. It is through the cumulative effects of sometimes small acts of kindness that we can begin to counter bias, bullying, and racism.

The GKC theme is also in step with a new CDE initiative called Education to End Hate. The initiative was designed to empower educators and students to confront the hate, bigotry, and racism rising in communities across the state and nation. The GKC supports this effort by providing positive solutions and resources that actively engage students, staff, families, and communities in creating a culture of kindness, compassion, acceptance, and mutual respect.

Join the 15 million students from over 28,000 schools in 115 countries who participated in the GKC during School Year 2019–20. You can sign up at http://www.greatkindnesschallenge.org to get instant access to the free online GKC tools (including GKC toolkit, checklists, translations, and more). I encourage all California schools to participate in the GKC!

Sincerely,

Tony Thurmond
State Superintendent of Public Instruction