A New School Year — New Futures

Despite living in Florida for 24 years, it is still odd for me to see Back-to-School ads in July. Having grown up in New York, where the school year begins after Labor Day, it still seems like everyone should be enjoying a summer vacation.

Yesterday was the first day of school for Palm Beach County and the excitement was almost palpable (and not just from the parents who were overjoyed at the thought that their children were going back to school!).  Facebook was full of photographs of children (some willing and some not-so-thrilled teenagers) heading off to school.

I have always loved school. Everything about school and learning has always made me smile. I loved going to school, loved my teachers (well, maybe there were a couple I didn’t actually love….or frankly even like) and loved to learn. All things that are still true.

My parents instilled in us a love of reading and the importance of education. They taught us honesty and respect and the benefits to be gained by coupling those traits with hard work.  They believed the road to success was only possible by supporting the school, teachers and administrators to foster our education.  And then, the teachers taught us reading and math and required theorems and how to diagram sentences. They taught us perseverance and challenged us to do better, study harder and to strive for more.

It has been a long time since I stepped into my kindergarten classroom and there is a lot I have learned since that day, but when one of my friends posted this picture yesterday, I realized that there are some life lessons that we learn at 5 that we should remember our whole lives.

This easel shows one such lesson that I am going to try to remember more often.

Kindness Pledge