This week I had the great pleasure of talking to one of our year 4 children who had, on her
own initiative, sought to encourage her peers to be more thankful.
Her decision was to hold open the door in the cloakrooms for everyone who
came through. She reflected that not many children said thank you and she
decided to challenge this. Her technique was to say ‘you're welcome’ to every
child that passed through. This, it seemed, struck a chord and slowly they
began to acknowledge her efforts by saying thank you to her.
She has continued to do this and the number of thank yous have increased
each day. I reflected with her how her decision had not only had an impact on
people saying thank you to her, but that the ripple effect was that they would
consider saying thank you to others, and there was clear evidence that they were.
Her individual action made a difference and this is something she should be
very proud of.
It’s interesting that small choices can lead to such an impact. Mother
Teresa is quoted as saying that ‘we can do not great things, only small things
with great love.’
In a world that promotes love as an emotion rather than an action towards
others, this one young girl sets an example to us all.
