Yesterday my daughter told me that her teacher had asked all the students to write down a compliment about each one of their class mates on a piece of paper and pass up to the teacher. Then the teacher would organise the compliments and give each student the compliments from their friends. I think this is such a nice thing to do as it makes the children focus on the good qualities of their friends, not only their close friends, but also the class mates, whom they don’t play or talk with so often.
It is a very healthy exercise, as it forces and teaches children to look beyond the surface and imperfections of other people and think of something nice to write about their friends. Let’s hope they remember to remind themselves to focus on the compliments they gave to their friends in future, although this exercise probably has to be repeated on a regular basis to create an impact on the children’s mind-set for life-long changes.
I recommend that this exercise is done once a term or even more often to train the children to shift their mind-set to positive thinking instead of dwelling on negativity. I would also love this exercise to be developed further into other areas of positive thinking skills, such as learning how to see both sides of the coin i.e. both sides of an argument, a conflict, a problem etc. and how to create win win solutions and solve problems with a positive frame of mind and with everybody’s best interests at heart.
Kudos to Sophia’s teacher in year 5 at Tenby International School.
