Kindness & Hard Work

Ever wonder what matters to a teacher with regard to their classroom culture? One day I was stuck on an airplane with no Wi-Fi. What to do with my life with no Wi-Fi? After many painful minutes of anguish, not having brought a book with me, I decided to write down some classroom culture thoughts. These thoughts address some of the unique academic challenges that students face at D'Evelyn and they address the concept of kindness and how I want the D'Evelyn community to continue to focus on being more kind to one another.

The harder you work, the smarter you get.

Who demonstrate true success, the person who improves each test score or the person who gets the same grade on each test?

Success is a process, not an outcome.

Your grade is written on paper, your integrity is written in people's hearts.

Nobody will remember what grade you got on an exam in ten years, but they will remember what kind of person you were. -McKelliips?

You are writing your future story today. When people remember you, what words will they use? Friendly, kind, encouraging, helpful, mean, disruptive, obnoxious, annoying?

Every day there are moments when you can choose kindness or selfishness. Choose kindness a little more every day.

Your kindness can leave an indelible mark on someone's life. Your lack of kindness can scar them for life.

One unkind moment can destroy the impact of numerous kind moments in a person's soul.

Why is it that being mean is more powerful than being nice? A kindness can give someone a good hour perhaps, but one mean action can ruin a person's day.

Words are the currency used to purchase people's reactions. Are you depositing joy into the people you talk to by encouraging them, or are you stealing joy from them by saying things that will make others laugh at their expense?

Are you one of the funny people in the room? The economy of laughter often asks for a deposit of a piece of someone's soul. Don't steal from someone else. Use only your own soul deposit if you want to be funny.

Genius is knowledge.

Creativity is applied knowledge.

Is it enough just to get smarter? Making an impact in your world requires taking your smarts and applying them to do good for others.

If you want to be kind you have to be uncomfortable.

Being kind is like climbing a mountain, it takes a lot of work to get to the top, but the view once you get there is amazing.

Create good things that have the capacity to bring joy to ALL. Bringing joy to a select group at the expense of another group is bigotry.

Humans are inherently selfish. If we are to be better than we were born to be, we must work really hard to fight against our nature when our selfish nature could harm others.

Be a light to those around you. Kindness is a light. Being mean is the black hole that starts to suck every good thing around it into oblivion.

Why would you choose to go to a school where you had to work harder than other kids at other schools? Does hard work always benefit the worker? Are there times when people work less and benefit more? I would say that hard work always benefit the employer, but not always the worker. Now ask yourself who the employer is at your school. Who are you working for? Do you work for yourself or for the school? Your net profit is your knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge. I would argue that you are the employer and the employee. When you choose this school, you are going to have the chance to gain more knowledge and ultimately get paid more in that knowledge currency. Would you rather have more free time? What can you do with free time? Can you make a bigger impact in the world with knowledge or free time? Do you want to make an impact in the world for good?