A Mystery Friend
What does it really look like when peace education takes root in a school? Beyond lesson plans and resources, it’s found in the relationships pupils build, the confidence they grow, and the actions they take. In this piece, Sheila Roberts, who works closely with schools on behalf of the World Peace Flame Foundation, shares her first-hand experiences of supporting teachers to bring the WPF education pack into the classroom, and the powerful impact she has witnessed along the way.
A Mystery Friend
By Sheila Roberts
One of the assignments in the WPF education pack pairs each pupil with a mystery friend.
The idea is simple and very easy to organise. Each child does kind things for their mystery friend in such a way that the mystery friend doesn’t guess who is doing them! Which means that each child has the experience of being kind and generous anonymously – so they don’t get any thanks for their actions
At the same time, each child is on the receiving end of kindness from someone else in the class – they have to try to guess who it is!!
The children love the challenge. It is quite difficult to give gifts or create nice surprises without being found out. At the same time, each pupil experiences acts of kindness from an unknown friend and has to try to work out who it is.
This assignment can run as long as a teacher wishes – for a day, for a week or maybe even for a fortnight
A colleague and I visited a school which had been working with the mystery friend challenge for a week. It was a Friday afternoon and the teacher had decided that it was time for identities to be revealed!!
What happened was very interesting
The teacher began to ask the children if they could guess who their mystery friend was.
One little boy put his hand up and said, “I think my mystery friend is Dylan”.
“Why do you think that?” asked the teacher.
“Because Dylan always brings chocolate to school and he never shares it – but recently he has been giving me some of his chocolate.”
The teacher turned to Dylan. “Are you his mystery friend?” she asked.
“No,” said Dylan!!
What had happened was that Dylan had actually enjoyed being generous, and he had started being generous to other people as well as his mystery friend!!
We heard some really beautiful stories that day. For example, one of the teachers told us that she had seen a pupil arrive late for lunch and sit down on his own because all the tables were full. Almost immediately, one of the other children got up from the table where she was sitting and went to keep him company.
Kindness is catching! So is generosity. So is peace. The school was a happy and caring place already but this simple assignment, which both pupils and teachers enjoyed being part of, created even more happiness and kindness. And a lot of fun!!