Playing By The Golden Rule: Something I Learned In Kindergarten

My niece is in kindergarten and just starting her school years, but I believe many of the lessons we learn in Kindergarten are some of the best lessons we will ever learn. The other day on the telephone my niece was telling me a story about a boy who called people names because he felt he was more "popular" than other people. Their teacher quickly set him straight and explained to him we should all treat each other with kindness and follow the golden rule. In other words, if you cannot say something nice you should not say anything at all. Some adults believe acerbic comments make them appear witty because they are able to put others down, but what does this accomplish? If you remember back to Kindergarten your teacher told you that it was never nice to put someone down just because you did not agree with their point of view. Life will be very dull if you feel you are the only person with a correct or the best point of view, especially if you must use put downs to achieve this goal.

"Hip" Does Not = Putting Others Down

Today I was reading the forums and I happened to comment that I liked someone's poetry and I only made this comment out of genuine sincerity. Well imagine to my surprise when someone pointed out I was ignorant for thinking someone wrote a nice poem, which is not something I ever expected to read on a forum. Yes this hurt my feelings and yes I think it was very pointless. Adults do not need to use the word "ignorant" to get their point across and maybe I am self-confident, but I consider myself to be an intelligent woman that has many valuable and important things to say. On this note I did not appreciate being put down and I am not begging for your sympathy, I just think it is very disrespectful to use such words such as "ignorant" towards other people. Also, I just wanted to point out I have noticed there is a trend on the Internet in general to put down others who do not express a popular point of view. Even if this person does not say things that you think are popular or hip, why do you have to put him or her down? In conclusion I just want to throw the idea out there of not using hurtful comments to get a point across. Everyone can agree to disagree without calling each other names or using put-downs.

This movie does a great job of reminding us how to follow the golden rule. Trevor McKinney (Haley Joel Osmont) is a twelve year old adolescent that has a teacher (Kevin Spacey) who proposes the simple idea committing random acts of kindness without expecting anything in return. This idea takes off and people begin to "pay forward" random acts of kindness that help to improve the lives of those around them. I do not expect the world to become a perfect place, but each of us is able to control our actions within this world of ours. If you have never seen this movie I highly recommend it because it shows what the golden rule is all about.