Westminster strives to instill virtue in its students from their earliest years in the school. One way the school achieves this goal is through the kindness assembly, which took place this week. This year, Upper School students put on a play that addressed kindness and how individuals’ actions can affect the community as a whole. After watching the play, Lower School students were led through discussion questions by Upper School students on what kindness means and what it should look like played out in their daily lives.

Ms. Annie Petzinger, French and Latin teacher, was in charge of preparing the students for the assembly, and she hopes the message of the assembly will help the children to strive for kindness and peace in their daily living. Ms. Petzinger describes how teaching students to live lives of kindness helps lead to shalom within the Westminster community, “When relationships are broken by gossip, hurtful speech, intimidation, or unkindness, more than just the two or three people involved are injured; community is broken. Therefore, when such behaviors come up in class, we don’t want only to address the external actions; we address the heart issues and seek restoration of shalom within the community. Shalom is the bringing of restoration such that peace, wisdom, completeness, prosperity, and wholeness reign. This is the whole meaning of the gospel – that we have shalom not only with God, but with each other and with all the created order itself. We begin in the youngest grades, pointing out how our actions impact others for good and for bad. It is wondrous to think that the conversations about kindness that we have with our junior kindergartners is a foundation to life that seeks the shalom of Westminster, Memphis, the United States, and, ultimately, the whole world!”  What a great lesson for all of us to take into our daily interactions!