Mad River Schools staff attend Civility Summit
Representatives from Mad River Local Schools recently attended the Civility Summit held at Northridge Schools.
The purpose of the summit is to bring the entire community together to #FindTheKind.
In 2017, the Two Harbors High School DECA chapter needed to come up with an idea for a group project. The group started talking about the most significant issues they felt were impacting their school. The students realized that they had a culture that is disrespectful to each other and that they couldn’t be open and honest with each other in a kind way. These attitudes were used to break someone down and not to build each other up.
If someone had a difference in opinion, they were flatout wrong. No one wanted to speak up in discussions, and learning no longer felt safe. It lacked all civility.
The group then decided to host a day-long conference titled the Civility Summit, and the purpose was to tackle incivility head-on. Throughout the day, attendees divided up into breakout groups and discussed questions. At the end of the day, each individual school decided to do something for their student body. These schools, including Two Harbors High School, started doing acts of kindness as a way to create more civility within their school culture.
Today, that one summit has resulted in a national challenge to get as many people as possible to do acts of kindness in the “Find The Kind Challenge.” The purpose: “To positively impact mental health through acts of kindness.”
The Mad River district plans to kick this off during the second annual Family and Community Summit scheduled for Feb. 8.