November 16, 2012

Assumption College Speech Night and Humility

I attended Assumption College Speech Night recently on the kind invitation of the principal, Peter Maloney. It was a nice night. The students were relaxed and natural, if a little excited, and the there was a supportive community atmosphere from the parents.

I liked the way the School presented its faith in God up front and as a fundament of its educational offering. No apologies and very sincere. I felt it brought a sense of humility to the proceedings, and that humility was certainly evident in the teachers and others presenting awards to the students. They just wanted the best for the students, for the students’ sake, and it really relaxed the students who responded beautifully.

Humility can be a hard to grasp idea. We can see it as a sign of weakness and letting people walk over you. But I think not. It is actually a source of great strength and may sometimes require great strength to practice. It can be a very freeing attitude to practice — if you don’t have to impress anyone you are free to just be yourself.

And if you can just be yourself, what a great parent you can be — free to hear and connect with your children. Understanding humility is one of the topics I hope we can take up in the parents program in 2013.