On September 22nd we participated in Character Day by exploring the values of Compassion, Courage, Honesty, Respect, and Responsibility as they are embodied in the Hamlin Creed.

Character Day poses the question: “What would it look like to have people around the globe devote one day to talking about character?” The day was created by San Francisco Bay Area, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, Tiffany Shlain and is now it its third year. This year’s Character Day connected 91,500 events spread over 124 countries and all 50 states. At its core, Character Day provides an opportunity for the entire world to devote one day to thinking about how we can each be better people by focusing on kindness, empathy, and generosity.

At Hamlin we connected Character Day to our celebration of Red and Gold Day and the sporting arena. Sister families (a mixed K-8 group of girls) were given the opportunity to focus on interpreting one word in the Creed.  Students began by discussing the meaning of their specific word, delving deeply into the importance of Compassion, Courage, Honesty, Respect, and Responsibility. Our girls were asked to think about a time when they saw their word exemplified during sports, physical education, or recess. Students then did artistic drawings that depicted the Creed in action. Character Day served as a wonderful reminder to our students to treat every day as an opportunity to uphold the virtues of our Hamlin creed.

In addition to the school wide participation with Character Day, Hamlin’s Head of School, Wanda Holland Greene was invited to speak live to hundreds of thousands of people all around the world about character education. She joined other profound thinkers like Angela Duckworth, Sal Khan, and Martin Seligman in this dynamic global forum.

You can listen to Ms. Holland Greene share her thoughts on courage, ethical decision-making and character eduction (among other topics), here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSRmi5Kj-pI

For more information about Character Day, please visit: http://www.letitripple.org/character-day/