2012 – Start Positive!

Resetting the Compass – Day 3:

Today on my drive to NY a discussion about New Year’s Resolutions was on the radio. It was said that the best way to set a resolution that has the best chance of being kept is to state it positively. The girl calling this in said she made the same resolution every year for the last 10 years and never fails to keep it. Her resolution is: Eat chocolate everyday. Cute, but the concept is the sweetest part. Tell yourself what you will do, instead of what not to do.

I remembered that when I was teaching, I used this concept to set the classroom rules. Tell children to do positive things and get positive behavior. Every year I only had three rules to follow in my classroom and they covered everything. They were:
1. Move slowly
2. Talk quietly
And number three, even though it wasn’t stated positively, was the most important one of all.
3. Never hurt anyone on the inside or on the outside.
99% of the children, even at five, could handle these and my classroom was really a nice place to live for 6 hours a day. I think, for 2012, moving slowly, talking quietly, and not hurting people on the inside or on the outside, if practiced consistently, would make all of our world’s nice places to live.

Shortly after that discussion, a song came on the radio that also stated something along these lines. It said not to give people advice. People don’t like to be handed a list telling them “don’t do this and don’t do that”. Instead the song suggested building a city on a hill and putting a candle on the sill. Learn to be the light.

For 2012, along with moving slowly, talking quietly, and never hurting anyone on the inside or on the outside, I’m learning to be the light.

And so, as another day goes by, all I ever needed to know I learned (and taught) in kindergarten, and ….I have written.

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