Primary Thoughts
Neil Mufson, Head of School

An “Ice Age of the Heart”?

Last week I mentioned that this summer the faculty read the book The Power of Kindness by Piero Ferrucci. In it, the author states that despite the discord, violence, tumult, and devastation that often pervade the news,

           “The fabric of our life is actually made of care, solidarity, [and] mutual service.

           These qualities are so embedded in our daily events that we may not even notice

           them. Yet to receive kindness does us good… [But] something similar happens

           on the other side of the equation: Giving kindness does us as much good as

           receiving it… Kind people are healthier and live longer, are more popular and

           productive, have greater success in business, and are happier than others.”

Since everyone’s experience suggests that humans are more likely to thrive in environments marked by kindness rather than conflict, our teachers this year will be paying even more mindful attention to ways we can model, emphasize, and expect kindness in our school community.

We also know that children learn best when home and school actively partner with one another. Hence I’d like to invite you to read Ferrucci’s book and to join a group of parents to discuss it in the library on November 15 from 8:30 – 9:15 a.m.

Kindness sounds so basic, yet as we rush about our lives, it can too easily not receive the emphasis it should receive. Ferrucci maintains that,

           “We all are in the midst of a ‘global cooling.’ Human relations are becoming

           colder. Communications are becoming more hurried and impersonal. Values

           such as profit and efficiency are taking on greater importance at the expense

           of human warmth and genuine presence. Family affections and friendships

           suffer and are less lasting. Signs of this decline are everywhere, visible

           especially when they touch us in the small catastrophes of life. You make

           a phone call to talk to a person and you hear a digital voice presenting a

           list of options… You wait for a letter from a friend and receive an email. The

           farm you love is gone, and in its place stands a cement building. You notice

           older people are not as well cared for and respected as they used to be.

           Your doctor concentrates on the test results instead of listening to you and

           looking at you. And rather than playing ball in the backyard, kids move in

           the virtual world of video games… I am convinced that we are going through

           an Ice Age of the heart… the causes of which are many: new living

           conditions and forms of work, the establishing of new technologies,

           the decline of the extended family, the great migrations in which

           people are uprooted from their birthplace, the weakening of values,

           the fragmentation and superficiality of the contemporary world, the

           accelerating pace of life.”

And all that was before the pandemic.

Amidst our lives in a world of exponential change, I look forward to exploring with you and other PDS parents how we can stand against this tide and ensure that our children are in the forefront of a renaissance of kindness in an all too shrill world.