H.L. Harshman Middle School was named a Kind School Designation honoree by Teach Kindness as part of its inaugural program recognizing 32 schools nationwide.
According to a press release, Harshman students rallied around the school’s food pantry as a schoolwide Kindness Project in November 2025. In the following weeks, the pantry more than doubled the number of families it served, growing from about 15 to more than 30 each month.
“It’s not ‘how do I be a part of the Harshman community’ — I am the Harshman community,” said Assistant Principal Jack Hesser.
In conjunction with this project, Harshman has also implemented 17 Teach Kindness lessons into a cohesive unit within their advisory structure. According to Teach Kindness’ website, these lessons provide activities that shape how students and teachers talk about inclusion, tone, conflict, and community.
According to Teach Kindness, the designation recognizes schools that establish a shared definition of kindness, provide kindness instruction schoolwide, and empower students to lead projects that support the school or broader community.
Teach Kindness is a national initiative of Stand for Children Leadership Center, providing free, research-based lessons, activities, and strategies to help schools intentionally build kindness into the school day. This initiative provides free, research-based resources to help schools build positive school climates by teaching kindness as a skill set.
“It takes real effort to build a school culture where kindness is the norm, not the exception,” said Brandi Watts, national director of Teach Kindness. “These schools are showing that kindness can be taught and practiced alongside academics. We’re proud to recognize the work they’ve done to make it part of everyday school life.”
Developed in collaboration with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Harvard’s Making Caring Common project, and the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, the program has reached more than 10,000 schools across 50 states and Washington, D.C. since launching in 2017.
“Schools do their best work when students feel like they belong. These schools are showing that a strong school culture is not an ‘extra’ — it is the foundation that makes everything else possible,” said Watts. “We’re proud to support schools building that kind of environment.”
Designees, including H.L. Harshman Middle School, led various student-operated service projects like a community pantry, 800 handwritten notes to local care facilities, 1,080 pounds of donated food, cross-grade reading partnerships, and a sock drive for local shelters.
For more information visit weteachkindness.org.
Contact Staff Writer Malik Simon at 317-762-7847.
Malik Simon is a Staff Writer for the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. Originally from Memphis, TN, he graduated from Mississippi Valley State University with a Bachelor of Arts in General Studies concentrating on journalism. Before joining the Recorder, he wrote for the Devil’s Gazette newspaper at MVSU and served as a freelance content and video editor. He seeks to use media to help communities flourish through literacy and factual reporting.
