Dear Parents and St Mary’s Community
 

Step 1 - make eye contact
Step 2 - smile
Step 3 - share in the smile that comes back.

I try to do the same around school.  With some students it is as natural as breathing to look others gently in the eye.  With others, it requires a few words first to break the ice.

We could ponder why some students have the confidence to look out upon the world with an open face, while others are more tentative.  But my thought today is that maybe we need to teach some of our young people the social skill of making eye contact - a skill this generation is losing as a symptom of our modern lives, in a world overloaded with technology, where phones and screens get in the way of personal connection and where the individual rules.

Adults need to be role models for the behaviours we want in our children – look them in the eye during conversations, help them understand what it is to make eye contact, practise with them for important occasions like interviews, meeting new people, and teach them that the ability to make eye contact is an asset. It seems to go without saying that smiling helps people bond, because a smile is contagious.

Teach your daughters to make eye contact, and the value of a smile given and received - this will open them up to the possibility of both receiving and giving a smile. 

Also - a smile is an act of Mercy. We show mercy through our eyes, and with the gentlest of smiles when we reach out to another human being. We enter completely into the moment and any apprehensions dissolve, making a connection through a smile. This is another reason why we should teach eye contact, teach smiling, and in doing so provide the skills to show mercy.
 
In the words of the Bard – (and in a week when students visited the Pop up Globe) “The quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes”. William Shakespeare.
  Yours in Mercy