|
A teacher in New York decided to honour each of her seniors in high
school by telling them the difference they each made.
Using a process developed by Helice Bridges of Del Mar, California,
she called each student to the front of the class, one at a time.
First she told them how the student made a difference to her and the
class.
Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon imprinted with gold
letters which read, "Who I Am Makes a Difference."
Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class project to see what kind
of impact recognition would have on a community.
She gave each of the students three more ribbons and instructed them
to go out and spread this acknowledgement ceremony.
Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honoured whom and
report back to the class in about a week.
One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby
company and honoured him for helping him with his career planning. He gave him
a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt.
Then he gave him two extra ribbons, and said, "We're doing a class
project on recognition, and we'd like you to go out, find somebody to honour,
give them a blue ribbon, then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can
acknowledge a third person to keep this acknowledgement ceremony going.
Then please report back to me and tell me what happened."
Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had
been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his boss
down and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative
genius. The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive asked him if he would
accept the gift of the blue ribbon and would he give him permission to
put it on him. His surprised boss said, "Well, sure."
The junior executive took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his
boss's jacket above his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said,
"Would you do me a favour? Would you take this extra ribbon and pass it
on by honouring somebody else? The young boy who first gave me the ribbons
is doing a project in school and we want to keep this recognition
ceremony going and find out how it affects people."
That night the boss came home to his 14-year-old son and sat him down.
He > said, "The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was in my
office and one of the junior executives came in and told me he admired me and
gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius. Imagine. He thinks I'm a
creative genius."
Then he put this blue ribbon that says "Who I Am Makes A Difference"
on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find
somebody else to honour.
As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom I would
honour with this ribbon and I thought about you. I want to honour you.
"My days are really hectic and when I come home I don't pay a lot of
attention to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good
enough grades in school and for your bedroom being a mess, but somehow
tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make
a difference to me.
Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life.
You're a great kid and I love you!"
The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't stop crying.
His whole body shook.
He looked up at his father and said through his tears, "I was planning
on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I didn't think you loved me.
Now I don't need to."
"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."
William James
|
