I could seriously write an entire book on the lessons I learned from my High School U.S. History teacher (except for what I learned in his History class, as evidenced by the fact that I received a 2 out of 5 on the college entrance exam).
But that’s the whole point of this message. It was never about the 4 walls of that history classroom.
I didn’t learn how to memorize all the presidents, and all the generals of every war ever fought on U.S. soil. I also didn’t learn how to recite the preamble.
But what I did learn, was fundamental principles of being a Kind, Altruistic person, and how to express my Love and Gratitude for everything and everyone in my life.
As students, we all needed to have full liberal arts schedules, as well as 2 electives per semester. It was a way for us to diversify our learning experience, and tap into some of our creative juices by studying things like music theory, cinema, or art.
You see, my high school history teacher, he wasn’t just the guy who prepared us for our college exams. He was so much more.
He came up with an idea for a new class, outside of those general elective topics, which became a brand new elective choice my last year there. He called us the “love class guinea pigs”.
He decided to take on the role of teaching a class that would engage his students in some real world stuff. Now what do I mean by that?
Pursuing passions and dreams. Day-to-Day interactions. Soul searching. Living by the Golden Rule.
He named his class, “History, Ethics and Philosophy of Altruism & Love “
Everything is in the title. He was still a History teacher at heart, and I remember learning about the four different kinds of Love according to the ancient Greeks – Eros, Agape, Philia, and Storge.
History never escaped the classroom.
We studied what “Love” meant across all different cultures: Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, etc.
(Surprisingly enough, it seems the whole world actually could unify itself around this one concept, because it’s one we all agree on. But instead we let politics and war separate us).
We had homework assignments that included things like “Write out your perfect 24 hour day” and the following night’s assignment was to go out and live that day to the best of our ability.
We later reflected on the experience and how to make more time for the things we love.
We also created gratitude journals, autobiographical “mix-tape” CD’s, and a “best love songs of all time” compilation CD for all of us to take home at the end of the year. Silly, but so fun !
Our semester-long project was to build “Random Acts of Kindness” boxes and distribute them across the school. He filmed each of us reciting one small line of a larger, collective mission statement that we created, and he broadcast it on the morning announcements to the school.
Our goal for the 3 short months was to reach 100,000 random acts of kindness (RAK’s) school-wide.
We would leave cut up slips of construction paper, large enough to write on, beside the boxes with pencils so people could write down every act of kindness they saw and drop it in the box.
At the end of the semester, we counted every single slip with words written on it, and stapled them together into one long chain link of RAK’s. We hung up the chains in the classroom, and what didn’t fit, we covered the outside hallways with.
For the rest of the year, the chain link was a constant visual reminder that kindness exists everywhere, when we choose to see it.
Many of our assignments focused on Intrinsic principles such as Happiness and Goal-setting.
I still have my notebook to this day, and I often review what I wrote 10 years ago.
I even saved the bright pink, stapled packet of homework assignments we had throughout the class.
He had us write.. a lot. About our fears, our dreams, our strengths, our weaknesses.
We got real and we got in touch with ourselves and our classmates. Never had I ever had a teacher push me to my boundaries of self-discovery like he did.
What a ride that class was. I will never forget it. It has literally shaped me and my actions into the person I am today. I owe the foundation of many of my virtues and morals to that class. The rest is history.
Oh, how could I forget ? Our writing prompt for our U.S. History Final Exam:
…“What Is Love ?”
One of my proudest accomplishments to this day is that I received an “A+” on that assignment 
(I quickly forgot about my ” 2 ” on my AP History test)
P.S. I still keep my “Love Class ‘09 “ t-shirt in my bottom drawer.
Happy Habits 