Hundreds of hands raised in acceptance of Rachel’s Challenge after hearing her compelling story. It seemed as if everyone was ready to live up to the challenge they had accepted and searched for their opportunity to be kind. However, instances where students are superficially “kind” to one another seem to be popular. Students who accepted Rachel’s Challenge need to express genuine kindness instead of insincere kindness for the sake of being recognized as “kind.”

When expressing kindness to someone, it is important to mean it. Otherwise, it’s better to say nothing.  Saying you like someone’s t-shirt when you don’t is not benefiting anyone. It isn’t fooling anyone either; no one is going to be impressed by a few half-hearted compliments or generalized notes plastered around the school.  Rachel’s message wasn’t about spreading kindness for the sake of being kind, but to be kind in instances where you would otherwise not have been kind. 

If students turn Rachel’s Challenge into something that insincere, then the challenge itself fails. If the challenge is filled with people who act to impress others, or just to appease the challenge, then the message that Rachel’s Challenge is trying to convey didn’t succeed. 

Rachel’s Challenge is meant to spread kindness and compassion throughout the community. Reaching out to a student who is sitting alone, telling a parent you love them, or helping someone who is just struggling in life are a few instances where Rachel’s Challenge can benefit people. 

It may be argued that being kind on a dishonest level can still be beneficial by instilling a sense of kindness throughout the community and creating a starting point for real kindness. However, when that is allowed, it just creates a culture with a veil of deception. It widens the gap between sincere and insincere and makes it that much harder to distinguish whether or not someone means what they say.

To keep Rachel’s Challenge from being something that is insignificant or mocked, the standard of genuine kindness should be reinforced.  To take on the challenge is to embrace the full meaning of it as well.