ﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠAfter some recent faculty discussion, we have decided to introduce a “new” Country School Value this month: generosity. While clearly related to other Country School Values such as compassion, commitment, responsibility, respect, fairness, and moral courage, generosity implies a voluntary and overt act of helping someone else to a high degree relative to the giver's abilities or means. As our Director of Advancement Liz Freedlander put it to our faculty, generosity begins by “sharing something that you have. You have to do something. You have to offer someone else something that you have. You have to give away something of yours. The something could be time, belongings, money, or a talent.”
ﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠGenerosity continues before and after a generous act, though. It is a state of mind, an outlook, an attitude, a habit, a spirit. It involves reaching out to others and sharing with them in a purposeful and joyful way some of one's blessings at a level that may be a bit of a stretch for the giver. What is a very generous deed or gift for one person may or may not be for another. Generosity, ultimately, is relative and individual. It involves conscious choices since no one's ability to give or do things is infinite, and it often leads to great benefit to others as well as feelings of wonderful satisfaction for the doer.
ﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠThe faculty, staff, and I also thought that the unprecedented need brought on by the South Asian tsunamis gave us a natural time to introduce this “new” value. If ever there were a “teachable moment” for generosity, this is it. The opportunity to model this value is profound, as is the chance to talk with children about why we as ones blessed with so much have a responsibility to practice generosity towards those whose lives have been unimaginably devastated.
ﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠIn last week's calendar, on our website, elsewhere in this issue, and via information that your child brought home this week, we have outlined the tsunami relief effort that we as a school community are undertaking. I urge you to talk with your child about why each of us is called to do something, something generous.
ﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠﾠI said at the beginning of this academic year to both faculty and parents, that while providing quality academics and laying the foundation for joyful life long learning are bedrock goals of our school's program, our deepest, most sacred mission has to do with helping raise good, thoughtful, productive people. We all have before us a chance to help others in dire, incomprehensible need - and a chance to help teach our children about what it means to be generous and why it is so important.