cannyben

The single most important job of the principal is creating a school environment where students feel safe, supported, engaged, and accepted. Children who are afraid of bullying or fights have less bandwidth for learning. Negative emotions, such as feeling alienated or misunderstood, make it harder for the brain to process information and to learn. On the flip side, brain development flourishes when children feel emotionally and physically safe, when they know they have adults who care about them, and when they are challenged in their learning. It’s no wonder, then, that research has found that a positive school climate can improve students’ academic achievement, attendance, engagement, and behavior, as well as teacher satisfaction and retention. While this may all seem like a no-brainer, of course students learn better when they feel safe and seen, the practice of creating and sustaining a positive school climate can be extremely difficult. School climate involves everyone connected to ...

In the beginning, God established a world of wholeness and peace. Once that world was shattered by Adam and Eve’s disobedience, God chose to re-establish the state of shalom through his chosen nation, Israel. If Israel had obeyed God’s law of compassion, life in Israel for both men and women would have been the happiest place. The Hebrew word for peace, “Shalom”, is so rich that its almost untranslatable. Thus the society envisioned by the psalmist in Psalm 85:10, as a society of shalom, is an order of life characterized by joy and justice, piety and plenty, kindness and caring. But God’s people failed to achieve God’s loving ideal. Isaiah graphically depicted the moral   and spiritual sickness of that disobedient nation (Isaiah 1:5-7). Divine punishment, administered in sorrowful grace, again and again overwhelmed Israel. Although the nation lasted more than 450 years, eventually Israel was overtaken by invading empires. Thousands of God’s people were taken   captive and ...

Jesus came with his revolutionary message of God’s kingdom – a kingdom accessible only by faith. It required loving obedience to the King and Father, as well as loving service to brothers and sisters in God’s family and to every member of the human family. Love was its one all-inclusive law, a love that Jesus spelled out in his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5), and a love that fulfilled the Ten Commandments (Romans 13:10). The controlling attitude and behaviour in this born-again society was to be compassionate, demonstrate love in action, and to provide caring concern for others – all of which was modelled by Jesus himself. As God incarnate, Christ flawlessly reflected his Father’s nature, not only the divine holiness but the divine heart. Because he was sinless and most acutely sensitive to sin, Jesus sympathised with sinful people who were suffering the consequences of inherited depravity and personal sinfulness. He was aware that the multitudes he ministered to were made up of sin...

The people of Israel were a society that prized their children. Abortion and child exposure – leaving children outside to die – which were practised by the pagan nations surrounding the Holy Land, were sinfully abhorrent to God’s elect people. They hailed every birth with joy and gratitude. Growing up with brothers and sisters, Jesus , no doubt, had opportunity and responsibility to help care for his younger siblings. He thus acquired realistic insight into the characteristics and needs of children (Mark 3:31-32; 6:3). While the Gospels give no specific information about the family relationships in the home of Mary and Joseph, we have good reason to believe they were sensitive, caring, and God-fearing parents. As His own attitudes were influenced by the attitudes of his parents, Jesus became a lover of children. During his ministry, he was delighted to welcome them whenever they clustered around Him. He had an acute understanding of their need for warm acceptance and adult help. So...

Jesus was concerned about hunger, disease, and injustice, but he was more concerned about people’s relationship with God and their destiny in the world. When He read Isaiah 61 from the Synagogue at Nazareth, he quoted, “ The spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed, free to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:18-19). By quoting this passage from Isaiah, Jesus announced his twofold mission. First, He would literally help restore sight, give comfort, and liberate those in bondage to destructive habits and addictive behaviour. Second, He would bring spiritual renewal, enlightening the spiritually blind (John 6), liberating the spiritual shackled, comforting the spiritually guilt-ridden and distressed. While His pity took in the whole gamut of human affliction and His healing miracles provided relief, His concern was ...

As Jesus was compassionate towards women and children, so He was towards those on the edges of society. In first century Israel, tax collectors and publicans were understandably despised and hated. They were Jews who acted as agents of the Roman government. Their task was to gather a specified amount of money from fellow Israelites with no exceptions. If they could extort anything beyond what was due, they pocketed the extra for themselves. So when Jesus wanted to stress the seriousness of sin in the church, he taught His disciples to treat the person as they would a tax collector if they didn’t repent (Matthew 18:17). People must have been scandalized when Jesus ate They must have been furious when Jesus invited Zacchaeus, a notorious publican to receive God’s redeeming, forgiving mercy (Luke 19:1-10). While telling a parable, Jesus must have perplexed His audience when a tax collector rather than a Pharisee received God’s grace (Luke 18: 9-14). The crowd must have been furious when J...

Israel was a patriarchal society in which women occupied a subordinate position and in many ways were treated as social and spiritual inferiors to men. It’s difficult to generalize, because rabbis differed among themselves on this issue, and fathers differed in the upbringing of their daughters. Husbands also differed in how controlling and restrictive they were with their wives. Love and personality differences of the Hebrew men in the lives of women created a wide variety of experiences. Yet it is undeniable that generally a woman’s lot in that patriarchal society was difficult. In their younger years, daughters were often treated with suspicion. They were closely supervised in order to prevent anything that might be viewed as unchaste. When she began her menstrual cycle, a woman was unclean and needed purification (Leviticus 15:19-30). To touch a menstruating woman was to undergo defilement that required ritual purification. Incidentally, a man was not to touch any woman except ...

  Most humans believe in a power greater than themselves. If they don’t know the true God, they are apt to create a god or gods to help them explain the mysteries of life. The God of the Bible, on the other hand, while unchanging   in nature and purpose, is genuinely personal. Because we are made in his image (Genesis 1:27), we can begin to grasp what God is like by using our own person hood as a clue to God’s divine person hood. If we eliminate anything imperfect bout ourselves and magnify everything we know about God to an infinite degree, we may begin to understand God’s flawless person hood. The Bible also tells that the one true and living God actually feels. He experiences a whole range of emotional reactions that are similar to our own. He laughs (Psalm 2:4), he grieves (Genesis 6:6), he hates (Psalm 5:5), he is   patient (Nehemiah 9:30), and he is compassionate (Psalm 103:8). Scripture tells us God is eternal, holy, just, all-good, wise, powerful, and loving. ...

  Humans are born with the ability to hope and dream for something better. It is what we do afterwards that determines the outcome. A hope without action is just a fantasy. The action is the means to achieve those hopes and dreams. For some people, the belief in our hopes gets lost through the years. So how do we get back on track and accomplish at least a few of those dreams. The first step is to realize that our hopes are still within reach. It starts with a clear understanding of the difference between what is achievable and what is not. The pathway that leads to our success is filled with small goals that, once accomplished, build our confidence to complete the next one. We possess the ability to establish achievable goals as stepping stones to reach what we hope for. A hope and a goal are two different terms that help in our task. The hope is the final destination and the goal is the path leading to it. One hope can have many goals or directions and strategies that help us...

If all the investments we’ve made in life, the only one that keeps coming back to us in manifold is that of goodwill and kindness. A sense of courtesy and kindness has always been appreciated and remembered by people for years to come. It has invariably come back to us in some form or the other. If we were to ask anyone to believe just one thing with their eyes closed, then this is it – goodwill is the only guarantee that holds us in good stead all through life. At times, this goodwill involves just a basic courtesy, such as inviting some people to sit, listening to them, using a kind note, asking about their welfare, or just saying “please” or “thank you”. Often, we speak hastily in rage, or even more important, don’t watch our tone, which results in long-lasting resentments that cost us precious time and energy. It is so important to show appreciation and care. No matter how busy we are, it is important to pause and work. It is important to be kind, and this is quite obviou...

LOVE: Most of us think that love gets diminished when we start loving more people, that we have only a limited amount of the emotion, which we should be very careful in dispensing. We worry about divided loyalties and being fair to all those we love. Often, we wonder about women who had multiple children and how little love each child must be getting. However, now we know that love expands to include more. The more we love, the bigger our capacity for the emotion becomes.   Love is not quantifiable and therefore not finite. But love is not indestructible. If not cherished and nurtured, it can indeed be lost ! Love does not hang around indefinitely, waiting for nourishment. Love needs to know that it is cherished, welcomed and appreciated. Love demands love, and in the absence of appreciation, dwindles, and may even fade away. Loving others and being loved back gives us an unparalled sense of well-being and a rare confidence. We all cherish those who love us because ...

Alumni relations is the misunderstood sibling of fund raising. The two have much in common — interacting with people who are no longer studying and working at your campus — and one can lead to the other. But they are different. Good alumni relations has many non-financial benefits, and if it becomes "all about the money," you risk alienating both regular alumni and major donors. Administrative work can be partitioned in many ways — one of which is to distinguish between internal versus external tasks. If, for example, you chair a chemistry department, you may spend most of your time on internal functions, reacting to the needs of chemistry majors, professors, and staff members. Externally, you may talk with alumni at commencement or when they come back to guest lecture in a class. Occasionally you will meet with a graduate to "seal the deal" on a potential donation. If you’re a dean, on the other hand, you very likely have significant and constant outside ...

I saw a man smoking as he drove. Mentally, I compartmentalized  him as a weak person who is slave to addiction. A bit further on I saw a woman driving with a cigarette. My passion thought was that she was trying to have her “moment” – I imagined her to be a liberated woman and in charge of herself. Instantly, I realized  both thoughts were judgmental  and gender discriminatory, resulting from preconceived notions – the result of a lifetime of experience, observations and readings. In this case, it didn’t matter too much as I am unlikely to interact with them ever. But what happens when we carry such preconceived notions into our everyday relationships and interactions ? Almost always such prejudices impact relationships. So, if a woman believes that men are disrespectful to women, she is going through approach every man she ever meets cautiously, and her interactions are bound to be stiff and wary. We keep striking at imagined enemies, reacting to past exper...

No matter what your major-and even if you’ve been working for a while - here are the basics everyone needs for success. People who consistently hit the ball out of the park didn’t necessarily have the most impressive degrees or credentials, or the fanciest titles. Instead, the ones who stood out, and went furthest, were those with the best “people skills”. Call it emotional intelligence (EQ), or soft skills, a knack for connecting with other people is crucial, from finding your first job until the day you retire. Institutions/Companies always hire someone-or don’t- based on the ‘little’ stuff, like showing up on time, smiling, making eye contact, a positive attitude. These are the things no one teaches you in school, yet they make an enormous difference. Of course, the basics come naturally to some, but others never learn them. To take just one example, most people never think of sending a post-interview note, briefly recapping the conversation. This is one of the habits ...

The young have taken to the streets world over and taken the charge for leading change. The youth has taken to the streets all over the world for issues they sense are vital to their future. Increasingly, the younger generation has taken lead roles on the world stage in public protests and advocacy related to environment, corruption, rape, censorship, campaign for gun control in the US, issues of citizenship and extradition as in Hong Kong, and recently in India, in support of the continuing secular spirit of the nation. It is natural that the youth should be concerned, as they are the ones who hold the future in their hands. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg and Nobel Prize winner Malala   Yousafzai are universally recognized faces of youth activism. However, there are thousands of other young people working for various political, social and economic causes. Adults dominate the   political discourse, but young people have demonstrated that today’s youth are inform...

What causes a sense of emptiness, sometimes even after success ? How can we deal with it ? When you finally achieve a long-desired goal, how should you be feeling ? Euphoric, excited, energized, full of plans – right ? This is what you wanted, planned and worked hard for. Life from here on should be satisfaying and happy. And yet so many feel this gaping hole right after the achievement of a goal – a void that belies the sense of success. It is almost as if the striving and yearning was far more exciting than the prize that is in your hands now. Young men and women who have been lucky enough to achieve their hearts’ desire and get coveted job or academic assignment are suddenly at a loss, feeling this deep sense of emptiness. They talk about it and the pain of that emptiness pushes many into depression and a state of hopelessness. What went wrong ?   The pursuit of the goal sometimes becomes so important that it become one’s life – and without the task that has been c...