“Caught Being Good”

When all of us were children, we had many people of authority looking to catch us being bad! We were constantly scolded in a negative manner about getting caught being bad! As an adult with young children, the grammar school where three of them attended ,developed an interesting program to reward good behavior. Teachers and administrators would be constantly on the lookout for good behavior. At the end of the week, they rewarded students with a simple paper commendation, that listed the students name and the words ,”Caught Being Good” As time went on, I recall being excited at one of our kid’s receiving this simple commendation. My wife and I tried to reinforce that message and how important it was to not look for kudos, monetary or gift rewards for doing kind deeds. These kind deeds at school, could have been anything from helping a younger schoolmate get up after falling down, to opening-up a door for a teacher.

Recently, I started thinking about how, if all people could “Get Caught Being Good” and recognized in some small way, wouldn’t the World be a better place. Maybe, just maybe there would be less hate among political parties, less hate and discord among faith and ethnic groups. Maybe, just maybe, to use a political phrase, we could ”reach across the aisle” and be more open and understanding. If we could apply this phrase to all aspects of life. If we could understand and acknowledge differences and be open to learn from others, what a wonderful World this would be!