Primary: Practical Life: How to Include Someone

Primary Instructor

Lesson 45 is How to Include Someone, and this is the most important Grace and Courtesy lesson in the entire program. This is the most important Grace and Courtesy lesson in this program. Inclusion is not a policy. It is not something that happens by accident. It is a practice. It is something children must learn to do with their bodies and their words, every day, moment by moment, interaction by interaction. This lesson teaches children that they have the power to shift someone's entire experience by simply noticing them and inviting them in. The indirect aim is developing awareness of others and practicing active kindness. Children learn to notice who might be alone, to take action, and to include them in their community. This is empathy in motion. Exclusion is not accidental. It is the default in most human systems. By default, people hang out with people who look like them, talk like them, have the same abilities, share their interests. Teaching children to actively include others is teaching them to interrupt the default. It is teaching them that inclusion is an action. It requires noticing. It requires intention. It requires practice. For children with social anxiety, noticing someone who is alone might feel overwhelming. You might think, what if they say no? What if I do not know what to say? Coach them with very specific language and role-play multiple scenarios. Make this lesson accessible to introverted and anxious children. Teach this lesson as one of the most important things children can learn. When a child includes someone who has been alone, they are changing that person's experience of the world. They are showing them: you belong here. That is the work of justice. That is the work this program asks you to do every day.

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