Some Anaheim educators and other invited guests were treated to a rare visit this week from the 14th Dalai Lama, who shared his thoughts on kindness, compassion, education and nonviolence at the Island Hotel in Newport Beach.
The Nobel laureate’s OC appearance was made possible by a connection with Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait. Turns out the two became friends after Tait launched a citywide campaign to register one million acts of kindness in 2013. Ultimately, that campaign inspired OCDE’s own One Billion Acts of Kindness initiative.
Speaking of OCDE, a handful of representatives from the department were in the audience Tuesday, including Orange County Superintendent Dr. Al Mijares. The OCDE Newsroom was also on the scene, posting this recap afterward.
And here are some other big happenings from the week that was:
- When a nurse from Kaiser Permanente Anaheim Medical Center learned one of her patients was going to miss his only daughter’s high school graduation, she intervened with a remarkable act of kindness, staging a commencement ceremony in the proud dad’s hospital room.
- A Foothill High graduate has parlayed his perfect high school attendance record into a new set of wheels after winning a random drawing for 1,879 Tustin students who never missed a class. Now all he needs is his driver’s license.
- A group of teachers, counselors, coaches and administrators from Southern California enrolled in a five-day bootcamp to get a better understanding of what it’s like to be a new recruit in the U.S. Marine Corps.
- With the passage of the state’s $183 billion budget, EdSource published this interactive graphic to show how $3.2 billion in additional school funding will be spent.
- UCLA researchers polled nearly 6,000 sixth-graders for a new study that suggests students who attend schools with higher diversity rates have a greater sense of well-being, reporting less vulnerability, loneliness, insecurity and bullying.
- Garden Grove Unified says it’s developing a new Vietnamese dual-language program, which would be just the second in Orange County — and the entire state.
- A report by CALMatters suggests there’s little evidence to show that California’s push to channel more resources to students with the greatest needs is effectively closing achievement gaps.
- Seeking to inspire bravery in others with hearing disabilities, middle and high school students from OCDE’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing program produced a stirring music video set to Sara Bareilles’ hit song “Brave.”