Emma Narvaez
At Saint Maur, one school day is dedicated to the Day of Reflection, where students reflect on one of Saint Maur’s Essential Outcomes (SMEOs). For the past three years, our religion teacher, Ms. Mansson, has thoughtfully planned activities and lessons that Saint Maur students will remember for years to come.
For the final Day of Reflection, Ms. Mansson focuses on the SMEO “Global Citizen.” The main event of this day is buddying up with Grade 1 students, which reconciles the near adults of Saint Maur with some of their youngest counterparts, highlighting the significance of their roles within the school community.
Before the Grade 12s’ new friends arrived, Ms. Mansson planned some additional activities for the day. Grade 12 students first took part in an Indiana Jones boulder chase, a “The floor is lava” game, and a T-shirt relay. Apart from being enjoyable, thrilling games, these activities served to exercise the Grade 12s’ team building skills, as each game required the students to communicate and cooperate with each other to achieve a particular goal: hitting a yoga ball at one individual running in circles, getting across the floor without touching it, and taking an oversized shirt off and onto the next person in line as fast as possible. These shared experiences not only fostered friendship between the Grade 12s, but also highlighted the importance of working together as a community to address challenges, an essential lesson for future global citizens.
Once the excitement of the gameplay wore down, Ms. Mansson sat the Grade 12s down to watch a heartwarming short film titled Ripple. The film tells the story of a man who offers to pay for a little girl’s cake, as her grandmother could not afford it. A flashback scene reveals to the audience that the man felt compelled to do so after remembering a time when a stranger had paid for his birthday cake as a young child. Further details of the film accompanied with emotional music had the Grade 12s in awe, as they reflected on the ripple effect a small act can cause across generations. Ms. Mansson explained that her intention for playing this video, and one of her overall objectives of the day, was to get the Grade 12s thinking: “Who do I want to be?” She explained: “Of course, so much of what we do academically is to get you ready for study and work, but I personally, and many other teachers think that if you can be good human beings, if you can actually think about how you can make people in your family or in your friendships happier, then a ripple effect will show.”
And with that in mind, the main event arrived…the Grade 1s! As the Grade 12s waited for a Grade 1 to approach them and buddy up, there was an undeniable mixture of excitement and nervousness in the air. It’s difficult to say which group of students was more nervous to pair up with the other: the shy Grade 1s eager to make a new friend, or the apprehensive Grade 12s scared to be rejected by their younger buddies.
Ms. Mansson purposefully plans this activity for the Grade 12s for their final Day of Reflection to emphasize the impact they have on the school community, before they embark on making a broader impact on the world. She explained, “I think that sometimes as Grade 12s, you’re so focused on university and you want to go out and fix things and change the world, but often you think, ‘I’m just a little person in a big world’. And that might be true. But in the world that you live in right now, as Grade 12s, you actually are a big person, and lots of people look up to you. So it’s important that before you are that one person in a city of people at university, you realize that you are actually really important to the kids in Grade 1, but also in Grade 6 and in Grade 10, who look up to you.”
Already, a ripple effect has shown, as one Grade 12 student, Go, received a wholesome letter from his Grade 1 buddy. In the letter, the Grade 1 wrote: “Thank you for being my very, very top friend, Go. And I hope you have a great day.” In regards to the letter, Go stated: “It was heartwarming because usually, I’m not awake in the morning, but when I got this letter, I felt really special. So I’m going to write a letter back to him now.”
After the Grade 12s’ new buddies left for their next class, Ms. Mansson began the final activity. She gathered the Grade 12s in a circle, and asked them to pass around a ball of wool after stating where they saw themselves in a year’s time and tying a part of the wool around their wrist. Once everyone had their turn, the Grade 12s were connected by the wool, symbolizing their current connections as a class. However, immediately after these connections completely formed, Ms. Mansson went around with scissors and began cutting the wool. With each snip, there was a palpable sense of uneasiness in the air, as each cut represented a unique path that a student would take after leaving Saint Maur. Ms. Mansson organized this activity to make the point that time flies. She advised the seniors: “Appreciate all those little moments you have to be seniors, to be in this safe space that many of you have been in for 12 years. And to appreciate each other. Because for some of you, you’ll never see each other again.”
Overall, the Class of 2024’s final Day of Reflection was one that allowed them to reminisce on their Saint Maur years, and reflect on who they want to be once they leave. Ms. Mansson leaves these final words to the Grade 12s: “Enjoy every day between now, and when I see you at the Cathedral on graduation day.” Additional thank you to 1st grade teachers Ms. de-Bourne and Ms. Kase for letting your kids spend the day with us!
Emma Narvaez