Be Kind to Plants: A Social-Emotional Experiment

“I don’t like you.” “You look weird.” “Nobody cares about you.”

On a typical school day, hearing these words coming from students in the hallway would immediately launch school counsellor Mrs. Danielle Acevedo out of her office. But when the students are actively participating in a kind-versus-unkind experiment involving plants, she has to bite her tongue.

“The purpose is to show the students how powerful our words are. A lot of the time people don’t remember exactly what we say, but people definitely remember how we treat them and how we make them feel,” Danielle says.

The month-and-a-half-long experiment ran through in the lead-up to Anti-Bullying Week before the winter break. 

For six weeks, two nearly identical Swiss cheese plants sat on either side of Danielle’s office door. One plant was the target of kind words from students and teachers; and the other plant was the target of unkind words. 

“That was the only difference; both plants got the same amount of water at the same time every week, and they got the same amount of sunlight,” Danielle says. “We wanted to see if there would be a visible difference at the end of the experiment.”

The results were noticeable well before Anti-Bullying Week began. Week by week, the plant that received messages such as “I love you” and “You’re beautiful” was clearly thriving, and the plant that was the target of mean words was negatively impacted.

“The sad plant was more droopy. He’s definitely missing a few leaves,” Danielle says. “It was also drying out more; the remaining leaves had a lot more brown, dead spots on them.”

Through Anti-Bullying Week, Danielle created a lesson for students to reflect on the experiment as part of their character education.

“If plants can be affected by how we treat them, how do you think people feel when they’re treated badly or kindly?,” read one question in the lesson. “Sometimes we make mistakes. We might say something unkind, and even if we say sorry, the person – or plant – may still feel hurt. That’s why it’s important to work towards repairing.”

Since the experiment ended, the students have been actively repairing the droopy plant through kindness. The words (and songs) that Danielle can hear from her office have changed dramatically, as the students are keen to revitalize the plant.

“I heard lots of Christmas songs before the break because they were practicing for their concerts, and I’m hearing a lot of You Are My Sunshine and words of affirmation,” she says. 

But it’s the physical artifacts that now surround the plant that impress her most. Hand-written letters and messages, drawings, and poems are pinned to the bulletin board to help repair through kindness.

“The bulletin board is full of love,” Danielle says. “I’ve been crying reading them because the students are so kind and thoughtful, and apologetic for not being kind to the plant.”

Some of these messages include:

“Violets are red,
Roses are blue,
I’m sorry for everything that ever hurt you.”

“I know a letter can’t fix it, but I hope that over time you can heal, and grow big.”

“You are really strong in those hard moments.”

“Keep growing bigger and the world will keep growing brighter.”

Danielle is happy to say the purpose of the lesson – being nice, and understanding the impact that our own unkind words can have on others – has gotten through to the students, who are keen to continue spreading kindness.

“They have been really self-reflective and recognized the power of their words. I’ve heard a lot of ‘This is what I will do differently.’ I’m really proud of all the students for taking that to heart,” she says, adding that as we approach Kindness Month in February, this conversation is shifting inwards and focusing on self-talk. “Our words have so much power – whether they are words that we’re sharing with other people, or ways that we are speaking to ourselves. It starts with us; if we cannot use kind dialogue with ourselves, it makes it harder to be kind to others.”