5-Minute Film Festival: Videos on Kindness, Empathy, and Connection
VideoAmy compiled this moving playlist of videos to explore the importance of human relationships and the power of being kind, generous, and compassionate.
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I'd like to offer up a video playlist to remind all of us about the power of empathy, kindness, and human connections. It's always a good time to practice gratitude for the relationships that sustain us all -- for the people who have taught us in a school setting and beyond, and for the young ones we are able to nurture and inspire.
I was also thinking about how many of us are living out the paradox of being ever more plugged in, and ever more aware of what's happening in our community via social media platforms, while at the same time, face-to-face interactions are less frequent than ever before. We are in constant touch, but barely touching. Watching these videos made me remember the importance of re-connecting, treating people with kindness and respect, and being generous and compassionate to both loved ones and strangers. If each of us pledged to do more of that, we'd make a better world for all of us to learn and grow in.
Video Playlist: Kindness, Empathy, and Connection
Watch the first video below, or watch the whole playlist on .
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This talk from the was shared like mad in social media, and for good reason. Sadly, , but her words live on as an empowering call to action for all of us to build better relationships with kids.
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has been winning awards and making news (check out its , especially the ). This heart-warming clip has strangers finding common ground in the most unusual of places.
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The playful tone of this cute little film absolutely tickled me. Two enterprising grad students collaborate on a very unusual engineering project with a young boy they just met.
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Yes, I'm a sap -- this one makes me weep openly. After Isaac's to his girlfriend Amy went viral, he made this sequel as a celebration of kinship and all the relationships in his family's lives.
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I love this short from , the New York non-profit founded by and middle-school teacher Orly Wahba to encourage kindness. Bonus: .
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is a wonderful podcast with true stories told live in front of an audience. Though the video quality is not great, as a parent of a toddler myself, I found this story to be a valuable lesson about acceptance.
- (03:13)
Dr. Dacher Keltner, head researcher at UC Berkeley's , speaks on how kindness and generosity not only make us happy -- but can contribute to good health!
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I admit it, this one's a re-run, if you watched my Gratitude playlist last fall -- but I just adore it so much I have to share again. A Dutch chocolatier opens a store that only accepts promises of kind deeds as payment.
More Resources for Teaching Kindness and Empathy
If you agree that raising a generation of kinder, more compassionate, generous, and connected kids will benefit us all, the next step is to find resources to teach all those wonderful skills. Fortunately there are a number of organizations out there that offer tools for parents and educators to do just that. I've collected just a small sample below. But do remember that one of the best ways we can teach our kids to be thoughtful and empathetic is to model it ourselves! So start making time for kind and generous acts, no matter how small -- they can make a huge difference.
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