The staff at Trevose Day School and Neshaminy Montessori have always had a focus on kindness and respect in our classrooms and overall school community.
As we start this new year, we all agree that teaching empathy, self-control, integrity, grit and embracing diversity as a core part of our curriculum is just as important as reading, writing and math.
With Martin Luther King Jr. being honored and remembered this month, we feel empathy was the best place to put our focus along with celebrating diversity. When young people develop empathy, they not only thrive in school and life, but they also impact their communities in positive ways. Many lessons will be given throughout the school with a focus on reading books that will lead discussions about empathy. The students will also role play and learn how to “step into the shoes of other people,” and try to understand their feelings and perspective.
Many young students have started reading books like Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes or The Mitten Tree. Our older students are reading Wonder as a class and will be designing their own t-shirts to celebrate their own individuality and diversity.
We will also be creating our tree of hope in which the students will be writing their hopes and dreams for a better and kinder world. They will share them with their class and then hang them on our tree for the entire school to read and appreciate.
