As I continue to recover from spinal surgery, I am able to read more books that I've wanted to read for a while now. Over the past few days, I read The Christmas List by Pete Nelson.
Initially, I thought that the book looked vaguely familiar and that the storyline sounded like one that I had read before. However, I didn't see any record on my blog that I had reviewed it, so I assumed I didn't read it.t
As it ended up, I had read it before. It was a good book to read again, and I am grateful I had the time to do so.
This story is based on a true story about the impact that encouragement and positive thoughts towards others can have on people - no matter what their age.
The story was inspired by a nun in Minnesota who had each student in her class write his/her name on the top of a piece of paper. The students would pass their paper to the person sitting next to him/her. That person would write something positive about the person whose name was on the top of the page. Then they passed it onto the next person who wrote a positive thing about the person whose name was on the page. This continued until all the students had the opportunity to write something nice on all the pages.
What was surprising to both the teacher in the story who did this exercise with her class as well as to many of the students who met later in life at a classmate's funeral, was that a significant number of the students kept their lists and referred to them throughout their lives.
There are sub-stories within The Christmas List which is set around the holidays. All are equally interesting and engaging.
I have already shared this book and its idea with a friend who is a teacher's assistant as well as who has a daughter and sister-in-law who are teachers. Hopefully, this year they will do this exercise and more young lives will be forever and positively impacted by the encouraging and supportive comments that other students share with them.
The Christmas List is well worth taking the time to read, especially as the holidays are approaching. It's a good reminder about how to treat others, and how to give people intangible gifts that will last for their entire lives.
This story is based on a true story about the impact that encouragement and positive thoughts towards others can have on people - no matter what their age.
The story was inspired by a nun in Minnesota who had each student in her class write his/her name on the top of a piece of paper. The students would pass their paper to the person sitting next to him/her. That person would write something positive about the person whose name was on the top of the page. Then they passed it onto the next person who wrote a positive thing about the person whose name was on the page. This continued until all the students had the opportunity to write something nice on all the pages.
What was surprising to both the teacher in the story who did this exercise with her class as well as to many of the students who met later in life at a classmate's funeral, was that a significant number of the students kept their lists and referred to them throughout their lives.
There are sub-stories within The Christmas List which is set around the holidays. All are equally interesting and engaging.
I have already shared this book and its idea with a friend who is a teacher's assistant as well as who has a daughter and sister-in-law who are teachers. Hopefully, this year they will do this exercise and more young lives will be forever and positively impacted by the encouraging and supportive comments that other students share with them.
The Christmas List is well worth taking the time to read, especially as the holidays are approaching. It's a good reminder about how to treat others, and how to give people intangible gifts that will last for their entire lives.
2 comments:
I've heard about the story behind the book. Will have to read this one.
I have heard that story about the positive lists for everyone in the classroom but have never read the book. What a wonderful thing to have the class do! :)
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