In search of a kinder world...

"Alway remember it is better to be kind than to be right."  - Jimmy Casas 

Sometimes, when your blog drops to the bottom of your do-list during the month of September, the list of possible things to write about seems overwhelming...and then suddenly it is October 3, 2017 and the events of the past four days offer only one topic that seems reasonable to write about - what can be done to make the world a little less cruel - a little more kind - than it has been these last few days?

Because I am an extremely strong advocate of peace education, I frequently say peace education is a strategy for building a kinder, more thoughtful future generation of policymakers, citizens and governance - and I fully believe this to be true. 

However, we all have to live in the world as it is now and that world seems to be increasingly more harsh, violent and intolerant of anything that is not 'right' according to personal views and perspectives. Sometimes, it can feel like "we" are all under attack from a wide variety of "different from us" folks - different ideologies, different mental states, different upbringings, different socio-economic experiences, different cultures, different colours of skin, different clothing styles, different music preferences, different beliefs about everything from taxes to religion to traffic patterns to nuclear armament. 

What can we do? What can those of us in search of a kinder world do? Yesterday, I had a discussion with my grandson about exactly this - what can we do when the whole world seems to have gone a little bit crazy?

Maybe the solution is just to re-focus ourselves - every one of us - on the word 'kind'.

I think this is going to require a grassroots movement from everyone to just stop and take a breath and think 'How can I help this situation become kinder?" 

How might the world change if every person in it just stopped and said or did one kind thing right now...what if we answered every question we were asked with 'A kind way to think of that might be..."

There are some beautiful picture books to help us share the concepts of kindness with our children and to serve as reminders to ourselves that kindness is always better than 'rightness'.   A few of my favourites are:

1) 'What Does It Mean to Be Kind?'  by Rana DiOrio & Stephane Jorisch

2) 'In My Heart' by Jo Witek & Christine Roussey

3) 'Me and Mr. Mah' by Andrea Spalding & Janet Wilson

Last night we read a picture book about kindness together, my grandson and me - being almost 11 is a good reason to still read aloud - and together we resolved to use the word 'kind' every day quite deliberately - at least twice a day. 

Maybe this will make a difference in the world, maybe it won't. But I truly believe the ripples will swell outward from these tiny pebbles of change we are attempting to toss - and one day these ripples of kindness will warmly bump up against and embrace the peaceful learners who are currently in our schools trying so hard to be the very best citizens they can be so their world will truly be a kinder place than the one they are growing up in today.

Say the word 'kind' once a day - seems like a small thing but Jack and I are going to give it a try!

Lorraine Kinsman, Principal

PS - And now the blog is started again for this new school year - I am delighted to be back opening Eric Harvie School for Year #2!