It’s funny how things come to be.

KCS has quite a few traditions. Many are from before my time so the story of how they began will have to be told by someone else. There’s one young tradition, however, that some of us have had the good fortune of watching from birth. It’s unique to KCS and both the result of and engine for much of what’s special here. It’s called Compliment Friday.

As the name suggests, this tradition takes place every Friday and is the community service project of a group of five to six students every year.  At assembly, these students come forward and announce to the school that it’s Compliment Friday, to which the school responds with a resounding cheer. Yes, it always starts the same way, predictability being a hallmark of tradition. Other students are then invited to come to the front and publicly share a compliment, or thank you, to one or more people. Each week, the theme changes. Last week, compliments were for teachers and classmates. The week before, pets. Over the years, there have been all manner of public outpourings of appreciation.

Contrary to what you might expect, Compliment Friday didn’t emerge from Shangri-La. Though there’s much that’s wonderful here, KCS remains part of a real world that sometimes includes conflict, missteps, insecurity and poor judgment. Despite our many proactive efforts, social bumps continue to be part of growing up.

This tradition began with a group of students who had been struggling with getting along. Friendships started, ended abruptly, then started up again. Feelings were hurt, sometimes healed, then, sadly, hurt again. When it came to our attention at the end of their grade 7 year, many steps were taken. One was the introduction of class meetings.

Now taking place in all grades throughout the school, class meetings have three parts. Students and their teacher usually sit in a circle, and the meeting begins with an “around-the-room” sharing of compliments. After this affirming start, the students collaboratively discuss and problem-solve an issue that needs attention. The final part of a class meeting is another “around-the-room” where students and teacher share something going on in their lives that others might not know about. It’s a powerful way to build connections and encourage empathy. The class meeting proved very effective in turning around relationships in this group of grade 8s. They were so pleased with the exercise that these same students came up with Compliment Friday as their community service project for the school. It has taken place practically every Friday since then.

An environment of regular, public gratitude is as wonderful as it is rare. These students turned a negative situation into a unique legacy of positivity.

And for that, this is a heartfelt public thank you.

Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics
You can follow Andrea on Twitter @afanjoy.