I was watching the news this past week and saw an item about the Canadian national snowball fighting team’s preparation for the upcoming world championships in Japan. I loved the interview with the co-captains but then I stopped and wondered how these 20-somethings managed to get good at an activity that has been banned from schoolyards for at least two decades.

Winter recess time is vastly different for kids in 2016 than it was for me 40 years ago. At my school, snow meant that the morning recess would be spent building snowforts so that at lunch recess we could have a decent snowball fight. Sometimes it would be grade-vs-grade, sometimes boys-vs-girls and sometimes just one group against another but it was always voluntary and if any student happened to wander into that area, it was understood by everyone (including the teachers) that it was their fault and not the snowball thrower if they got hit. It was like walking in puddles all recess and then complaining that your socks were wet all afternoon. I do not remember a teacher ever saying “stop throwing snowballs, someone is going to get hurt” but I do remember that when someone got hurt, everybody stopped and understood that the fight was over for that recess unless the patient quickly said they were OK. This was often pre-empted by the thrower’s offer of a “free shot” for the victim. Yes, even in snowball wars there was empathy!

In fact, snowball fights were nowhere close to the most dangerous winter recess activity. Every new snowfall meant that the snow pile from the parking lot would get higher and higher and the view for the king of “King of the Castle” got better and better. With each thaw, the snow would get icier and more jagged and it was a miracle that there weren’t more broken bones and facial gashes.

I know that society today will never return back to these activities “good old days” and that if I proposed a “snowball fighting zone” on the Mentor/TEAM playground, I would need permission forms executed by lawyers to make it work (and my colleagues would volunteer me for yard duty every recess, every day!). Society can also send mixed messages, however. When I Googled “snowball fight at recess”, the first result was this – a child’s game in which participants throw a snowball at a group of bullies (one of the bullies is wearing the answer to a math problem and he is the “target”)! Huh? Get the correct answer by partaking in a banned activity that is directed at someone involved in another socially-unacceptable activity? I would love to meet the creator of that game…on the top of a huge pile of parking lot snow!

Chris Starkey
Administrative Principal
Mentor College / TEAM School

With a new school year underway, I know that many students have set goals to make honour roll, to earn a spot on a sports team, or to receive an academic award or athletic award this year. These are worthy goals, and if you are determined to put in the grit and the stick-to-it-ness required to achieve these goals, know that your teachers and coaches are here to help you.

But the new school year resolution I want you to achieve has nothing to do with making honour roll. It has nothing to do with earning high marks. It has nothing to do with being selected most valuable player on a sports team. It has nothing to do with receiving an academic or an athletic award at the end of this school year.

The new school year resolution I want you to achieve this year will outlast any award or medal you will ever receive. It will remain with you for a lifetime. And unlike an award or medal, you will be able to carry this achievement with you wherever you go. Everyone will be able to see it.

This year, make your new school resolution to be better person.

Let’s start with a few examples.

Perhaps we sometimes get caught up in gossip or spread unkind stories about others – about our classmates or about our teachers – through word-of-mouth or through social media. Perhaps we are quick to judge others, critical of the way they act – for what they do or for what they don’t do. Through our unkind words, by our laughing at them, or even by ignoring them, we put them down. And let’s not kid ourselves into believing they don’t notice, because they do and it hurts.

Here’s another example: perhaps we give up easily, get frustrated when things don’t go our way, or when we don’t succeed the first or even the tenth time we try to do something. Perhaps we have a difficult time accepting and learning from our disappointments. We may have outgrown the temper tantrums we had when we were toddlers, but we still can’t handle not getting what we want, when we want it.

Have you ever noticed that those who can’t handle not getting what they want usually blame others? It is either a classmate’s fault, or the teacher’s fault, or the coach’s fault.

I want you to be honest with yourself. I want you to talk to your parents and get advice from your teachers, and I want you to write down in your agenda your own new school year resolution that if achieved, will make you a better person.

Achieving your new school year resolution won’t be easy. Setting a goal is one thing, but achieving it will require self-control, in some cases courage, and what I call, stick-to-it-ness. It will require patience, humility, a lot of humour, forgiveness, and good old fashion grit.

Flash forward to June 17, the last day of this school year and imagine how proud you will be with yourself for accomplishing your goal to be a better person. Imagine over hearing a classmate, a teacher, a parent in the hall speaking about you and having observed your actions throughout the year, describing you not as someone who won an award, but as someone who always makes others feel good about themselves – who has grit – who never gives up. Someone who is the kind of person we’d all like to be.

Now go out and be that person.

Lori Findlay
Principal
Intermediate Division