A Brimmer Core Value: Kindness

The following remarks were delivered to The Middle and Upper School Community during Opening Convocation:

Ruth Bader Ginsberg became only the second female U.S. Supreme Court justice when she took the oath of office on August 10, 1993. Appointed by President Clinton, Ginsburg was an advocate of women's rights, gender equality,  and rights for all minority groups. And although they certainly didn’t always agree, she earned the deep respect of her colleagues on the Supreme Court, of presidents, and of the American people. She died last Friday at the age of 87 after a fight against pancreatic cancer. Today, she will become the first woman to ever lie in state at the US Capitol. As I spent time last weekend reading about RBG’s life and enduring legacy, I came across this quote from her: "When a thoughtless or unkind word is spoken, best tune out.”

 

While that is easier said than done, it struck me, and it made me reflect on our core value of kindness, and the notion of tuning out unkindness. In fact, I thought about it even one step further, about taking unkind words or actions, and doing what one can do to turn them into something positive. It isn’t easy - to turn a negative into a positive - to rise above -  to turn pain into love. But it can be done. 

 

December 14, 2012 is one of the darkest days in our country’s history. It is the day of the Sandy Hook tragedy. Among those who perished that day was Jesse Lewis, who was in first grade. In the investigations that followed that terrible day, law enforcement said Jesse used his final moments to heroically save several of his friends and classmates.

 

Shortly after his death, Scarlett Lewis, Jesse’s mom, decided she wanted to do something to honor Jesse’s life and to be part of the solution to the issues that we’re seeing in our society today and that she believes led to the tragedy. She created the Choose Love Curriculum and became an advocate for social and emotional learning, which teaches children how to process their thoughts and emotions, feel connected to their peers and to their families, and build healthy, positive relationships. This curriculum is being used in our Lower School and in grade 7 this year. 

 

Scarlett took an unimaginable, terrible tragedy and did what she could to bring something positive out of something so horrendous. She rose up against the forces she felt led to her tragedy.  Because of Choose Love, students all over the world, including right here at Brimmer, are learning about compassion, gratitude, courage, forgiveness, and kindness, all in Jesse’s memory. Scarlett turned pain into love. She took her pain and channeled it into action, and that action is having an impact on future generations. 

 

So, this year, I hope you will consider not just how important it is to be kind, but also reflect on how you can take the bad things that happen to you, and turn them into something positive. Choose love. Choose Kindness. And as you do, remember these words from Maya Angelou: “You may trod me in the very dirt but still, like dust, I'll rise. Just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of the tides, just like hope springing high, still I rise.”