Mirrors That Encourage Self-Confidence in Schools
1 School Hung Mirrors That Encourage Self-Love, and We Can See the Students Smiling From Here
Educators at Leroy H. Smith School in Winterport, ME, recently came up with a plan to boost their students' confidence: by placing "self-talk" mirrors at eye-level around the school that are designed to remind kiddos their voices are important. Dawn Moore, the elementary school's principal, first saw a similar idea online aimed that encouraging different types of learning and decided to put her own spin on the concept. Photos of the mirrors were posted to the school's Facebook page on March 20, and they quickly went viral.
Dawn told Babble that regardless of a child's situation or background, they still have more than enough reasons to practice self-love: "We want our students to know how important they are. It doesn't matter your struggles, what matters are your attitudes and belief in yourself. We consciously teach students positive self-talk and belief in themselves weekly but felt there needed to be more."
Another interesting aspect of the project is that the mirrors have nothing to do with kids' specific academic ability — which is important to consider given the setting. "It is not reflective of how you did in class," she says, "but reflective of whom you are and what you can be if you believe in yourself."
So far, the students have been seriously digging the mirrors, according to Principal Moore. "At first, the students loved looking and making faces and silly actions (which was so fun to watch)," she said, adding that, "but after the novelty of 'look at me' was over, we have observed many students looking at themselves, proudly, reading the sentence above the mirror."
She can also point to a specific day when she realized hanging the mirrors was an incredible decision and it involves a female student who just needed a little extra confidence boost. "This teacher came to me in tears," she said. "The student looked in the mirror and repeated the sentence and said, 'You and Mrs. Moore think I am beautiful?' We have learned it doesn't take much to help students feel special and know they are important."
Scroll through to get inspired by these sweet words of positivity.
