Lifelong Learning |

There’s nothing like our grade two International Celebration to remind me of the Yin and Yang of learning.

Last Friday, our grade twos showed up in costumes from around the world. In their grade-two way, they did a brilliant job at assembly and then back in their classrooms sharing what they knew about their adopted countries.

What I love about this is the way these projects immerse students in how different life can be elsewhere. Some people argue we should focus on our similarities with others, and of course there are many. However, I’m most grateful for our differences, because it’s our differences which make us reflect anew on ourselves.

When I lived in Japan, not a single day went by when I didn’t learn something new, something that made me pause and adjust my understanding of the world and what was possible in it. Among all those lessons was that of Yin and Yang, and the notion that life is full of complementary opposites – it always was, is, shall be and should be – just like night and day.

This flies in the face of the primal Western mindset – the conviction that all can and should be great, that happiness should be a singular goal, and that frustration, setbacks, and grief are bad and to be avoided.

Heavy stuff from a grade two showcase.

Taking place one week before the end of school, I can’t help but reflect on the year. We wholeheartedly strive to maximize the Yang (light) part of the duality. Learning should have many successes. It should have moments of unbridled joy. There are so many such moments at KCS that a book couldn’t capture them all, let alone a blog.

It’s also important to remember the presence and the role of the Yin (dark).The year has also had frustrations, tears, injuries, and conflicts. There have been disagreements, hurt feelings, difficult discussions, and problems that lingered longer than anyone wanted. We work hard to minimize them, yet they happen anyway.

Life happens in complementary opposites, and life happens at KCS. Learning to be resilient is one of our KCS Habits because being resilient is necessary to get through the bumps inherent in a life fully lived.

We’ll keep working to make as much happiness as possible at KCS. And we’ll keep working to help our students face any setbacks. Knowing what matters in life includes both.

Thanks for the reminder, grade twos. And thanks to everyone, teachers, parents and students, who live through the Yin and Yang with us. It has been a great year of learning.

Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics

You can follow Andrea on Twitter @afanjoy.

“We have discovered that fiction at its best isn’t just enjoyable. It measurably enhances our abilities to empathize with other people and connect with something larger than ourselves.”

– Dr. Keith Oatley, University of Toronto

My son had the benefit of being mugged the other day. Thankfully, it happened through fiction, in this case, Eric Walters’ book Shattered. He also had the experience of working in a soup kitchen, meeting people who are homeless, and hearing their stories.

My son is a reluctant reader who will only independently gravitate to baseball magazines. Like many other parents of reluctant readers, I do back flips trying to entice him to read books. On a recent occasion, with six baseball-based novels in hand, my son said the following: I hate fiction. It’s not real.

Too bad for him, I had just read about the work of numerous psychologists, as explained in Oatley’s blog post “Changing Our Minds by Reading Fiction” at www.sharpbrains.com. He pointed out that fiction is a simulation for our social and emotional worlds. Though not true stories, they are real in their ability to act as experience that shapes who we are. And in fact, these researchers do find evidence that readers of fiction change as a result. Knowing of their work, I gave my son a bigger response than he expected.

Life is social. Experience is valuable. Reading fiction offers an infinite array of social experiences, equipping readers to better understand and navigate the complex and sometimes precarious social world in which we live.

Being mugged is something I hope never really happens to my son. Working in a soup kitchen and hearing the stories of those who seek warmth and a meal there is something I do hope happens to him, though as yet he’s not open to the idea. So be it. Thanks to fiction, he’s already started checking it out.

And while he’s still pinning his hopes on a future in baseball, I know he’s being prepared for much more.

Andrea Fanjoy,
Assistant Head, Academics

You can follow Andrea on Twitter @afanjoy.