Very Important People

Very Important People

I wasn’t going to write a blogpost today to mark Day 107 of #107days. I’m quite reserved and expressions of emotion from me are likely to come out as quite strangulated and clumsily expressed.

But I just wanted to quickly share something that happened this morning, quite coincidentally. It was my daughter’s VIP assembly morning. One of my favourite things about my kids’ primary school is their VIP system. Every week, one child in each class is drawn by lot to be the VIP for the week (so that every child is a VIP for one week in the school year). VIPs get a special red jumper and get to do exciting jobs like going to get the school register, but the lovely part is the VIP assembly. At some point in the week, without the VIP present, all the other children in their class discuss what is great about them. In the VIP assembly the VIPs get to hear (with family invited and usually dabbing away the occasional tear at the back of the hall) some of the things that the other children value about them. It can be (and is) absolutely anything: working hard in school, having a different hairstyle every day, being kind, having a fantastic smile, making people laugh, making up good games to play. The message is quite simple; every child in the school is special and unique, every child brings something to make the school what it is, and the school would be poorer for them not being there.

So as usual, I was sitting at the back, tears quietly welling up (and how often has #107days made me cry?), watching my daughter smile shyly under the attention (she’s not a great attention seeker, unlike my son, but she does love the VIP assembly), and I was thinking about LB and all the other dudes of all ages. If my kids’ primary school can find a way of recognising and celebrating everyone’s qualities and appreciate that society is richer for that diversity of qualities, why should the rest of society find it so difficult?