Shannon Desilets, NH’s Choose Love Ambassador, Office of the Governor Chris Sununu, asked Principal D’Haene to share how Choose Love has impacted MCS. The letter below will be shared with the Governor. The district hopes our information will help support New Hampshire’s ability to continue funding this important and impactful program.
Choose Love at MCS (Thoughts for the Governor)
From Kathleen D’Haene, Principal MCS
1-3-22
Moultonborough Central School is a Pre-K through 5 elementary school with 247 students. We initiated Choose Love at all grade levels in the Fall of 2019. Every staff member in the building is connected to a classroom and joins them for Morning Meeting and the Choose Love lesson. The positive results became visible almost immediately. Not only did Choose Love give us the language to discuss emotions and the impact they have on us, it provided us with the tools to help us deal with those emotions and behaviors in a more productive and positive manner.
Choose Love has given MCS the means to support staff, students and families in a way we never had before. It has taught us that we have the power to choose how we are going to respond to life’s disappointments and distress. It has provided us with a framework to enable us to have difficult and honest conversations with one another, as well as given us the space to be able to say, “I love you”. Those three simple words have moved us from a culture of weariness and distrust to one of care and kindness. Every morning we start our day by saying, “Thank you for Choosing Love.” It is a reminder to all of us to look for the love in one another and to use the Choose Love tools to help us when times get hard.
As we enter our third year of living with a pandemic while teaching and learning in an elementary school, I’m not sure we’d be doing as well as we are if it weren’t for Choose Love. It continues to provide us with the tools we need to thrive during these incredibly trying times. Our next step is to hold a community wide Choose Love celebration in the Spring in order to share Choose Love with the community. I can’t say enough about the impact Choose Love has had on Moultonborough Central School. I’d encourage you to watch the video that was made this past Fall about MCS found on our website. We were asked to create a video showcasing who we are as a school community. What is clear from this video is that we Choose Love.
