Lessons from Elementary School
By Maggy Baccinelli .jpg)
Maggy is the editorial coordinator of the ACC Docket and is responsible for editing the publication, writing monthly articles and creating corresponding multimedia pieces highlighting ACC members' legal expertise and unique personal interests. Follow along as Maggy, shares her insights. The voice, views and stories expressed in this series are of the author and are not ACC's.
On Monday, Jan. 16, seven ACC staff members volunteered at Bruce Monroe Elementary in Washington, DC, for MLK Jr. Service Day. Some of us, myself included, learned more than we expected.
Bruce Monroe’s student population is predominantly Latino, and it is known for its dual-language program. The school leadership’s vision is to make its multicultural students into successful global citizens, by nurturing them in a safe, innovative and academically rigorous bilingual environment. The first step toward global citizenship means knowing about other countries. So, when we arrived, we were instructed to paint flags from around the world, which would be hung in the auditorium. Eventually, we moved on to painting hallways with murals of smiling fruits and vegetables, butterflies and ladybugs, and short phrases in Spanish related to the school motto.
The motto is: “Be safe. Be kind. Be productive.”
It’s a simple and powerful adage that we can all apply to work and home. For elementary school students, being safe means not running in the halls; being kind means using kind words; and being productive means doing homework. In our work as adults, these examples stay the same. As an editor and journalist, slowing down and proofreading carefully; communicating considerately with my interviewees and colleagues; and being thorough in my research while minimizing distractions by delegation and organization, has helped me to be successful. How can being safe, kind and productive, help you as in-house counsel?
Though it made us think, and some of us even quipped about how we should make it the motto of the office, this was not the only lesson we learned at elementary school on Monday. Here are a few others we were reminded of as we got our hands dirty:
- It’s fun to volunteer with coworkers;
- If you turn the Mali flag upside-down, it becomes the Guinea flag; and
- For really detailed painting, it’s easier to use a Sharpie.
Final words of wisdom came from Dr. King, who we were honoring on Monday by participating in the program. Close to where we exited, there is a big mural of him and a quote that reads: “Life's most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?’”
