Who doesn't want to be cool?

by Bethany Larson

During team time this week in the Splats room (grades 6-8), students got a chance to read the stamps that had been sent to them in the past week. Each student smiled as they read their notes from their friends, staff members and other students in the ILC.

“How did you feel reading your Stamps?” I asked the students.

“Good. I liked reading my Stamps, but I liked writing them more,” said one sixth grade girl.

We talked a little about how receiving and giving out compliments feels good. So why don’t we do it more? The students talked about how there friends don’t normally say encouraging things. It is not normal to give complements, so it is scary not knowing how the other person is going to react. Especially in middle school students are struggling to be perceived as “cool.” And the “cool” thing to do is usually not to give out complements.

Daily kids engage in playful banter with one another. They laugh with and at each other, ignoring the hurt it might cause. Both kids and adults are guilty of poking “fun” at peers, but truly it hurts.

The goal of the Impact Learning Center is to help empower students to be impacters in their world. Encouraging words is an impact that can be made daily. Each day student’s mailboxes and minds are being filled with notes of encouragement, not only from staff, but their peers, the students sitting next to them.

It’s moving to see the students excited about writing and receiving Stamps encouraging notes. It is cool to receive a compliment. It is cool to give one away as well. And who doesn’t want to be cool?