The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Sandy Hook mom develops kindness curriculum
NEWTOWN — It’s hard to image a better-timed endorsement than a White House seal of approval on the eve of a product launch.
But that’s what happened for a Sandy Hook mother who was rolling out a home version of a kindness curriculum she developed for schools to honor her son’s death.
It all came together on Dec. 18, when President Donald Trump released his school safety report, and at the table with him to highlight the report’s recommendations was Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse was among the 26 first-graders and educators slain in the 2012 Sandy Hook School shootings.
Lewis, who founded the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement to promote kindness in schools, was singled out in the 180-page report for her campaign to bring emotional and mental health awareness training into classrooms.
Her 18-year-old son, JT Lewis, was also at the White House meeting, explaining the murder of his little brother was preventable.
At the same time as the White House meeting, Scarlett Lewis was launching a home version of her nonprofit’s classroom curriculum, to help families learn the practice of choosing love in challenging moments.
So it was good timing that the Trump administration’s endorsement of Lewis’ school curriculum as a best practice for reducing bullying and violence made national headlines.
“We know that social and emotional learning is statistically effective in preventing violence, bullying, suicide, incarceration, substance abuse and mental health issues,” Lewis said during an interview after the White House meeting last week. “We are so used to thinking reactively, but as the report pointed out, social and emotional learning is proactive and can prevent school violence.”
Lewis’ hope is that the national publicity about the school curriculum will not only encourage more districts
to adopt the program, but will encourage families to download the free athome video course.
For details about the at-home program, visit https://www.jesse lewischooselove.org/ choose-love-home.
The idea to expand the nonprofit’s curriculum to homes came from parents, who wanted more information about what their children were learning in school, Lewis said.
The goal of the video course is to unify the messages at home and at school that by embracing courage, forgiveness, gratitude and compassion, anyone can overcome obstacles.
“We try to provide ‘aha moments’ that you hear once and that stay with you for a lifetime, but the main focus is to be able to understand that what moves us and shapes us is not what happens to us, but how we respond to what happens to us,” Lewis said. “When we choose to respond with love, we are taking our personal power back, and it takes us to a better place.”