One hope for the new year: a kinder culture
A FEW WEEKS AGO, MY ELDEST SON, WHO IS IN HIS FIRST year teaching fourth grade in a public elementary school, decided to put a suggestion box in his classroom, though he wasn’t quite sure what the box would yield. The result was not so much suggestions as appeals for kindness. From “Lots of people don’t mind their own business” to “I am stressed out because everybody keeps arguing about little things,” there was a classwide desire for compassion, if
