At the Opening Flag, I challenged the students and the community to keep a kindness journal. I accepted the challenge for myself as well. While my initial instinct had been that keeping track of my own acts of kindness would lead to increased awareness about how to reach beyond myself to help others, I quickly discovered that keeping track of acts of kindness I observed other people doing, instead of focusing on something I did myself, had a larger impact.

Taking a step back, that actually makes sense, as it forced me to pay more attention to the world around me and to recognize what other people are doing, instead of remaining focused on my own actions. In the process, I started to notice that there are some people who are what I would describe as kindness superstars, people who ended up in my kindness journal multiple times over a short period of time.

These are people who were consistently doing small, behind-the-scenes acts of kindness that I may not have noticed in previous years but, with my focus on finding new acts of kindness each day, quickly caught my attention. There was the family that after hours and without drawing any attention to themselves, filled Alan’s office with balloons for his birthday, or the parent who quietly dropped off baked goods in the office for members of the faculty and staff every few weeks. There were the older students who walked with our younger students over to their classrooms in the morning after getting off the bus or out of the car at carpool, and the faculty members who consistently stayed after faculty meetings to put away the chairs so that the maintenance crew did not have to clean them up the next morning.

These kindness superstars had two mains things in common. One, they consistently did things without being asked. They sensed when things needed to be done or when someone needed an extra hand. Two, they never sought – nor rarely received – public acclaim for their actions. They were doing things for selfless reasons, not to receive accolades or attention. It reminded me of a C.S. Lewis quote I had seen recently, where he described humility as not “thinking less of yourself,” but “thinking of yourself less.” These kindness superstars are living examples of that quote.

This past month, we have encouraged the community to express its gratitude for the many gifts we have in our lives. In particular, we have encouraged students to express their gratitude for their teachers, the extraordinary individuals who are the heart and soul of this school. Hillbrook’s teachers, like other kindness superstars, are remarkably selfless individuals, people who devote their lives to nurturing, challenging, and inspiring children to reach beyond themselves to make a difference in the world. Wednesday morning the faculty lunch room was filled with notes from students expressing their appreciation and love for their teachers. As I read through many of the notes, I was reminded of the depth of connection between students and their teachers, and the many small things that our teachers do to let students know they are known, valued, and loved.

In the film, “As the Twig is Bent,” former Head of School Robin Clements said that he always wanted students to know that they had been seen, meaning that each day when they arrived on campus they knew they were known and appreciated as an individual and a member of the community. As I think about the 2014-15 school year and the many extraordinary things that have happened inside and outside the classroom, I hope that more than anything, that each child and each family feels like they have been seen. And, perhaps just as importantly, I hope that each student and each family can look back and point to moments when they have made the effort to make sure someone else has been seen. It is, after all, in those moments of humility and reaching beyond ourselves that we are, in the end, most fulfilled and connected ourselves.

I wish everyone a restful and rejuvenating summer.

Mark Silver

Head of School