Second Grader's Cure for Playground Loneliness: The Buddy Bench

(Photo: Paul Kuehnel/Daily Record/Sunday News)

If you’re feeling left out, how do you get connected? How do you even tell others that you feel isolated? It’s hard enough to deal with this as an adult. But if you’re just a kid, what do you do?

At Roundtown Elementary School in Manchester Township, Pennsylvania, you go sit on the buddy bench.

It’s a bench set aside on the playground for kids who want to play, but need a buddy to play with. Second grade student Christian Bucks learned about this invention at a school in Germany and decided that his school should have one, too. The York Daily Record reports:

Christian hopes that students who are playing at recess will go to the buddy bench and include the children who are sitting there to play or talk with them.

"We show we care about others when we ask others to play," he said. "I also hope that new friendships will be made because of the buddy bench."

-via Dear Wendy