Forgiveness – Week 18

Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.  

-Nelson Mandela

For an in-depth overview of each weekly slide presentation, please skip below to your specific grade level.

• To see the 1-page Forgiveness Character Card and share it with your students’ families, click here.

• For the P2 Reflection Journals, used by all elementary students at the end of the week, click here.

Starting Monday, Partner Schools nationwide will begin learning about forgiveness. This is the ability to move past being injured, and to allow yourself to reconcile with the person who hurt you. Forgiveness can often be seen as a selfless act, but it also carries many benefits for those who practice it. Those who demonstrate forgiveness have the ability to move forward after someone has caused them pain. Forgiveness is often rooted in the idea that all people are valuable and worthy of a second chance. Many who forgive have the ability to consider things from another’s perspective.

Forgiveness does not mean rolling over and allowing yourself to be harmed. It does not mean that you forget the transgression. By forgiving someone, you don’t have to say that what he/she did was okay. And, forgiveness is not contingent on the other person apologizing.

This week’s character strength example is Nelson Mandela. As this article highlights, Mandela leveraged the character strength of forgiveness as a strategic element towards peace and reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa. And, the below video, from the movie Invictus, shows that forgiveness takes courage as well.

For individuals, forgiveness has benefits that range from increased health to developing positive relationships to coming to an understanding that no one is without fault. Remaining bitter and angry increases your stress levels, and forgiveness helps an individual release that resentment, and repair or strengthen his/her relationships.

The ability to reconcile differences and move forward positively is a trait of any effective group. When people work together, conflict is inevitable. However, when people value each other’s contribution and believe in the group’s goal, they become more capable of moving past conflict toward genuinely positive behavior. A group member’s willingness to forgive imperfections of both other members and the group as a whole contribute to overall success.

And, as a reminder, you can find all of our weekly slide presentations on our website’s Resources page. Enjoy the slides — and please be sure to let us know how it’s going by posting to Twitter and using the #PositivityInAction hashtag!