As I was reading over today’s facebook updates, I noticed that www.character.org  had posted a story that was written by Katie Kindelan and featured on the ABC News Blog titled,  “an 8-Year-Old Boy Asks Santa to End His Sister’s Bullying.”

The story was about a set of twins, a brother and sister, where the brother had the courage and compassion to ask Santa to help his sister stop being bullied! How can we get more children to be upstanders, as Michele Borber calls people who take action to stop others from being bullied? Investing in education will give us the greatest return on our investment in the short and long run.  Investing in high stakes testing, not so much.  However, if  we intentionally heighten the awareness and are implicit with helping students develop their character and social and emotional learning, then all good things follow.  Kids won’t have to bully other kids and young people will know their inherent value.