A few weeks ago I reminded all of our high school students about the importance of mindset – in particular, a positive mindset – something they are fully in control of.  Possessing a positive mindset is a kind of “can-do” approach to learning that research has shown can steer students toward incredible accomplishments in academics and co-curriculars, once they manage to shed negative energy that can sometimes block progress. In addition to mindset, I believe another important attribute in your intellectual toolbox is what I call “perspective.”

Perspective is the opportunity to reach out beyond daily experiences and learn from those who are different – those who have a different upbringing, who experience different opportunities, perhaps those from different cultural traditions and experiences. Perspective is about building greater personal awareness through a sense of openness.

For example, our students are involved in community service initiatives where sometimes they see and interact with the hungry, the homeless, victims of violence, the physically or mentally handicapped.  It is important to realize that so many in our own city have challenging experiences that are significantly different from our own. Through active service experiences young people gain awareness and a better sense of perspective of their own blessings and emerging priorities.

Last week seven LCC students returned from a two-week trip to South Africa for the annual international conference of the Round Square. While there, our students learned about South African history and contemporary society, travelled overland and worked with children in a daycare setting and in a state primary school in a township.  Also, our students had the opportunity to attend an international conference where they met and discussed a host of issues with teenagers from all over the world – from a multitude of cultural, linguistic and religious traditions.  Without a doubt, this experience affected their sense of perspective. Another group of LCC students is currently in Denmark as part of a European regional RS conference interacting with students from many RS schools. So they are also actively learning through experience while broadening their horizons too.

The great value of these experiences is the opportunity to leave the cocoon of our day-to-day worlds and meet others who have different views, experiences and priorities. In essence, experiences like these give students enhanced perspective about themselves, and tests their existing personal priorities and assumptions.

So through service opportunities and international experiences personal norms are actively challenged and students gain a clearer, more enhanced perspective on themselves as a people and what they deem important. Perspective helps to make young people more reflective and thoughtful; essential elements to becoming a more mature and complete person.

I recently asked LCC students to quietly reflect. I asked them, what are you thankful for?  What matters most to you? What are you prepared to stand up and defend in public because its absence or loss would genuinely upset or scar you?

For those of us who have so much – who live in a society of abundance – it is important to reflect on these tough questions and in the process, gain perspective on the many benefits of living in Canada and our unique personal priorities.

I want our students to have a strong sense of perspective relative to others in different circumstances in Canada or abroad.  If still undeveloped, we want to help them take the steps necessary to ask some difficult questions. They should consider taking advantage of some of the many active learning opportunities available at our school. The perspective they will gain is a kind of awareness that will likely buoy and support them in ways they will find to be both surprising and even transformative in the long term. –Chris Shannon, Headmaster