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It was two days after Christmas 1998, and my son, Caleb, and I were sitting in front of a roaring fire with cups of hot chocolate and we were reminiscing about previous Christmas days – those memories that made us laugh or cry. And I said to Caleb, “And what during all these years (Caleb was then 23) was your favorite gift from me?” My brain was actively wondering whether it was his first bike at eight, or those Nike shoes (they probably cost more than the bike) at ten or the Star Wars Space Station when he was six.

When I shared this thought, Caleb looked at me, raised one blond eyebrow and said, “Mom, you have got to be kidding!” I was really stumped. I couldn’t imagine what he was going to identify.

Have you ever saved anyone’s life?

My eleven-year old niece did just that.  The story is rather remarkable.

Elizabeth Marie was in the front room watching TV; she had let the family’s pet, Sampson, a large German shepherd, out the door to go to the bathroom.  Suddenly, the dog sprinted away from the house and attacked a five-year old boy, who was just ambling past the house and down the street.

No apparent reason

The child was not doing anything inappropriate, such as throwing rocks at the dog, etc.

I am a recovering pessimist.

For over thirty years, I have been practicing the skills of optimism.  It began with a traumatic divorce, which was wearing me to the ground.

In addition, I was very concerned about my ten-year son, who was depressed by the multiple tensions floating in the house.  Emotions were at an all time high—with anger and grief topping the list.

What could I do?

 
I knew that my son deserved a mother who exhibited joy and happiness.  I was aware that there is research about happy teachers having happy students.  Therefore, there must be similar research about mothers.

Upon leaving high school, I was five foot eight inches and 180 pounds.  People never described me as fat, but as large-boned or sturdy.

However, I was not happy with the way I looked and, really to me, it did not seem as if I devoured that much food.

I did have an intense sweet tooth.  So, unfortunately, I was often tempted by that extra slice of chocolate pie, chocolate chip cookies in the cookie jar, and any form of chocolate—with or without nuts.

My freshman year in college, I became very ill with a virulent flu.  In the process of getting sick, staying sick much longer than anticipated, and getting well—I lost about twenty pounds.

This is a transcript of the Synapse State of the School Speech, 2013.

Synapse is the Six Seconds lab school and offers an advanced academic curriculum fully integrated with social emotional learning.

The Synapse program is carefully designed as a model school to demonstrate the power of blending Six Seconds’ emotional intelligence programs with leading-edge instruction (brain-based, project driven, constructivist learning in school-wide themes).

The State of the School speech was delivered by Synapse School CEO, Anabel L. Jensen, on April 24, 2013.

My favorite picture book (sadly out of print) has fourteen words in it.

I reread it frequently and share it often with others. It is the story of a tiny mouse whose job it is to move a gigantic purple elephant. He tries pulling, pushing, bribing with peanuts, and crying, all to no avail.

Finally, he becomes inventive and moves the elephant speedily with the noise from a large golden trumpet. And, it’s a very good thing he is such a critical and creative thinker, because he discovers that he has ten more elephants to move…

And so do you…and so do I.

You may know of my life theme to promote conscious acts of kindness as a daily practice.

The idea is for you to actively take kind, compassionate actions day in, day out as a way to promote not just greater well-being in the life and soul of the recipient but in you too.

My mission

I see it as my mission to endorse and carry out this idea. I think we can achieve wonderful things together if we do!

Conscious acts of kindness come in many sizes, many degrees of importance.

Volunteering is a necessity!

Service to others should, in my opinion, take multiple forms – from the needs in our schools to the needs of the community, nation, even to the world. We simply can’t volunteer enough to fix the problems of our world. There is much to do.

Interestingly, in my experience over the years, I’ve noticed that those who serve reap benefits far greater than the cost of serving. It truly is a win-win situation.

Balancing the budget

One year I needed $80,000 to balance my school’s budget.

“the noblest art will be always pure experience…” ~ W.B. Yeats

I have two favorite artists. One is Vincent van Gogh and the other is Caleb Jensen, my son. I like the first for all the classical reasons and the second because of his personal approach.

Cutbacks have led to huge cuts in art education in schools, with many relying on volunteers or additional fundraising to support their programs while others have simply cut out art from the curriculum completely. Yet at a time when this is happening all around us, we at Six Seconds actively pursue a strong art curriculum for several reasons:

Both winners and losers have dreams. The difference that drives their opposing outcomes is that losers fantasize while winners are more pragmatic. Winners begin, do, finish. They are not defeated by adversity.

Michael Jordan, after being cut from his high school basketball team went home, locked himself in his room, and cried.

Oprah Winfrey was demoted from her job as news anchor because she “wasn’t fit for television”.