Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Our Grade 7's are leaving...

The end of the school year brings with it many great feelings. Holidays are around the corner and the smell of new school year is lingering in the air as we put together various organizations for the coming school year ( a principal's job is never done).

I am about to go into the gym and make the opening remarks to those who gather to see off our grade 7 students. I thought I'd share my remarks for your comments.

~

Leaving grade seven is a pivotal point in your lives. You are about to enter into a stage in your lives where you will have more answers than questions and more to say than you really should. Your brain is going to rewire itself and you are going to shift all priority to sleep and food. You are going to be growing in every sense of the word.

You are going to be overwhelmed by idealism. Take advantage of your desire to fix the world. Find a cause to believe in and do something about it.

I know Mr. MacLean uses words that sometimes you haven’t learned yet. So I want to make sure that you understand what I mean by idealism.

It means that you see the good in the world more than you see the bad.

It means that you see the ideal situation rather than all the things that could go wrong.

It means you are an optimist rather than a pessimist.

It means you care rather than being apathetic.

My generation was taught that we were individuals, that we were special. We were taught to stand out and be heard. We were told that in order to be successful we had to get and to have. We were the “me” generation. Well guess what. We learned our lesson all too well. We have forgotten the importance of community, the power of collaboration and cooperation.

My hope for you is that we have taught you that you need each other to be successful. It is through the richness of our differences that we achieve our greatest successes. When you seek to support rather than credit seek you will truly be rewarded. Rewarded on the inside. Your own sense of being a good person will grow. The only person who will be with you for your entire life is you. So be sure to feed yourself healthy doses of caring.

You will probably not understand what I mean by this until you are a bit older and you are able to reflect back on your teenage years.

So in the meantime do me a favour. Look after each other.

I wish you all the best in high school and be sure to come back and visit. Our door is always open.
~

And with that we close the chapter on another year at our little oasis of learning.


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