World Kindness Day
World Kindness Day is a global day that promotes the importance of being kind to each other, to yourself, and to the world. The purpose of this day, celebrated on Saturday November 13 of each year, is to help everyone understand that compassion for others is what binds us all together. At a recent Senior School assembly, I spoke of the importance of kindness and compassion; of encouraging and supporting each other.
I referred to the book, The Happiest Man on Earth, which is the true story of Eddie Jaku’s life and how, despite the many adversities he faced and the treatment he received from the Nazis during World War II; that he had chosen to indeed be, the Happiest Man on Earth.
Eddie Jaku tells us: “Kindness is the greatest wealth of all”. The good thing about this sort of wealth is that it is accessible to each and every one of us.
Somerville House is a school where we value respect, integrity, courage, compassion, inclusion and gratitude. Our motto – Honour Before Honours – helps us understand that personal integrity and character should always be more important than recognition.
One area we can always excel is in how kindly we treat each other - being kind allows us to have the space for all members of community – kindness is the ultimate form of inclusiveness. It, therefore, also is the foundation of unity. We can all be united as a community if we are all committed to kindness.
Everyone is a winner with kindness, and it contributes to each person’s mental health and sense of belonging. Research has shown that spontaneous or random acts of kindness have an enormous and positive impact on all kinds of well-being, not just for the recipient but also for your own well-being. However, to be a naturally and truly kind individual, you need to tune in to the people around you and be empathetic to others consistently. It needs to become who you are.
One of the unique aspects of humanity is the ability to understand another’s perspective and to imagine what they may be feeling. This perspective-taking is a starting point of kindness as it allows people to think about how they might be able to help. It is also a starting point for a whole lot of other important things that require empathy, action and courage, such as being prepared to change systemic biases as we respond to Reconciliation matters, how we acknowledge and treat people with disabilities; how we treat and respond to those who identify LGBTQI+; and how we treat people from other countries.
If indeed kindness is the greatest wealth of all, we need to continue to focus on this in our school. We focus on other things designed to achieve our school purpose, like academic endeavour, co-curricular activities, and service learning. These all contribute to developing confident and capable young women. In order to be compassionate, though, we need to be super vigilant about ensuring pervasive kindness.
It is so easy to dismiss ‘kindness’; it seems so simple and basic, a bit of a soft term. The sad truth is it is not as easy or as common as we would all like.
It is my fervent hope that kindness becomes part of the DNA of Somerville House. It must not be taken for granted; we need to tend to it, nurture it, celebrate it, allow it to drive the School forward and to ensure that it is never lost in our school culture and that we become even more consistent with and committed to it. It is a worthy aspiration.
After all, in the words of Eddie Jaku, kindness is the greatest wealth of all.
Social Media about Kindness
I saw this great clip on Rebecca Sparrow’s website. I think it has great impact on how we treat other people. I will share it with our students at a future assembly, but also share with parents now, as school and home need to give the same message to our young people.
Fathers and Significant Males
I strongly encourage Dads, Uncles and other significant males to attend the Foundation’s final Futureproofing event of the year in the Honour Room at 5.45pm for a 6.00pm start on Thursday, 25 November, to listen to Madonna King speak on the topic of Fathers and Daughters.
Madonna is the author of the book Fathers and Daughters. Based on her research and interviews with over 500 girls, many fathers, leading psychologists, school principals, CEOs, police, guidance counsellors and neuroscientists, Madonna explores a father’s role in his daughter’s life from a daughter’s perspective as well as the father’s. Madonna examines the key issues that arise to help families navigate the difficult moments that may occur. Madonna will speak about how father-daughter relationships are strengthened through three connectors. I really hope you are able to spare one hour on Thursday evening (25 November) to listen to Madonna King’s insights. It doesn’t matter whether your daughter is in Prep or Year 12; I am confident you will glean improved understandings from this presentation.
Global Research Fellow
We congratulate Dr Gemma Dale on being accepted as a Research Fellow of the Global Action Research Collaborative on Girls’ Education’s 2022-2023 cohort, which will be researching The Global Reset – New Opportunities for Educating Girls.
The National Coalition of Girls’ Schools offer the world’s first action research program that engages girls’ school educators from around the world in collaborative, disciplined, and sustained action research. The program builds both a network of girls’ school educators and a database of valuable and relevant research on girls’ education.
The NCGS Conference, held every June, is the epicentre of the conversations. “Teacher-researcher” Fellows present annually on their findings during this networking event—the only conference of its kind dedicated solely to girls’ schools. Gemma will present her research at a Global Forum on Girls’ Education in Boston, Massachusetts in June, 2022. We look forward to learning more about Dr Dale’s research findings, which will ultimately help to advance best education practices at Somerville House and other girls’ schools.
Mrs Kim Kiepe
Principal