“Kindness MAILBOX”
“Kindness Mailbox” is a initiatives designed to foster kindness started by Mr Kimitoshi Kakuno, the pricipal of Aoki Elementary School in Yokohama Japan. Mr Kakuno has generously allowed LITTLE ARTISTS LEAGUE to feature letters that were posted in the “Kindness Mailbox” on the “Flower of Kindness” online gallery. Below is an account of our visit where he explained and shared his experience from this 14 year old initiative.
KINDNESS FUELS the will to live
We had just come out of a unusually short summer vacation which was 2 weeks long due to the COVID crisis. It was a hot end of August day in 2020 that I visited Mr Kakuno, the principal of Aoki Elementary School in Yokohama. He has kindly agreed to meet and tell me about his initiative called “Kindness Mailbox” and to help us with LITTLE ARTISTS LEAGUE’s art project “Flower of Kindness”.
Mr Kakuno started the “Kindness Mailbox” 14 years ago . He used to be a sales person for a car company but shifted his career to become a school teacher. But he said he always believed that more could be done so that children can grow up to have a happy future. When he first became the principal of a school he immediately begun initiatives to foster kindness. Because he had a strong belief that “a kind heart will always fuel the will to live.”
Mr Kakuno’s “Kindness Mailbox” is a forest green colored mailbox with a lock placed outside of the principal’s office. Freshly entered first graders up to 6th graders about to graduate are all invited to post a letter whenever they discover kindness in their daily lives. These letters are made anonymous and published in a monthly school letter with a reply from the principal to each and every letter attached.
One student’s letter reads “the person who sits in front of me picked up my eraser that I dropped.” And older student’s letter reads “a few days after the first snow of the year, I saw several teachers including Mr Principal shoveling snow and I was filled with gratitude for the teachers who are always working for us even outside of the classroom.”
There are several letters from 2018 which read “Thank you Encho-sensei” “I like you Encho-sensei.” These must have been written right after the customary inner school expedition where first graders roam the school to learn their schools in their first semester, which is when they usually get introduced to the “kindness mailbox.” “Encho-sensei” is how you address the principal of kindergarten in Japanese. Mar Kakuno replies “If by Encho-sensei you mean Mr Principal, I am very happy and I like you too!” The boxes of letter in which Mr Kakuno keeps all of the letters, are filled with heart warming letters such as these.
“Mr Principal,
So-and-so is kind because she always says good morning.
So-and-so is kind because she spoke to me during school lunch.
So-and-so is kind, because we a bit during cleaning.
So-and-so is kind, because he helped me find a dragonfly during recess.
So-and-so is kind, because she played with me on the bars.
So-and-so is kind, because she’s always says hello to everybody.”
(letter from January 2017)
To this, Mr Kakuno’s reply was “you are a genius of finding kind friends! This is because you have a kind heart too. I hope you will keep finding kindness in your friends.” In this tender interaction between a student and a teacher, is a child living life as best as she/he can, and a teacher who lovingly stands by to witness it.
This letter was written by a homeroom teacher. “Yesterday during cleaning time, my 2nd graders realized that the 5th graders next door were absent on a school trip. They decided to clean their hallway and their classroom and the entire class came and covered their black board with pictures and messages “Welcome back! We hope you had fun!” They remembered that the 6th grader had done the same for them when they took a school trip to the zoo when they were in 1st grade. I was touched and felt very proud of my 2nd graders.”(December 2018)
This episode can be said to be the fruit of another initiative that Mr Kakuno started at Aoki Elementary School- a mixed age classroom placement, rarely practiced in public schools in Japan. Rather than placing all three 1st grade classes on one floor next to each other, this system places one 1st grade class between a 6th grade and 3rd grade class. On the other wing of the building, a 2nd grade class is sandwiched between a 5th grade and a 4th grade class. Mr Kakuno explained “a person who has little self-esteem is unable to be kind to others. Even in a bunch of the brightest, it is said that you can not avoid 20 percent of that brightest bunch to feel inferior to the rest of the group. However next to a 1st grader, any 6th grader is a reliable older person. By giving the older students many opportunities to help younger students, we can foster not only self-esteem but kindness too.”
Mr Kakuno says he is always talking about “kindness” to his students. Each year he instructs every homeroom teachers to engage their classes to discuss the topic of “kindness.” As I walk down the hallway I see that many walls are covered with children’s writings on “compassion” and that “kindness” is at heart of the school’s culture.
LITTLE ARTISTS LEAGUE’s project “Flower of Kindness” が今回取り組むアートプロジェクト「やさしさの花」を企画する中で、キーワードの一つとして何度もあがったのは「やさしさは伝搬する」というものでした。人は誰かにやさしくされれば、他の誰かにやさしくすることができる。一つの「やさしさの花」から無限の「やさしさ」を生むことができるはず。全世界を襲ったパンデミックは、今までの私たちの日常や生き方を問い直す機会となりました。何が必要で何が重要なのか。The world is full of dark news but 世界からは心の痛むニュースが絶えませんが、今もこれからも大事なのはempathy・共感 とcompassion・思いやり を持って生きること。アートを通じて多文化共生に取り組んできた私たちが、このプロジェクトで一番実現したいことは「みんなのこころをやさしさで繋げる」ことです。
As I spent time with Mr Kakuno I was filled with visions of a bright and hopeful future.
Thanks to the students of Aoki Elementary School for the inspirational words on kindness.
And special thanks to Mr Kakuno for his devoted work.