The Brunswick Trust

Health & Wellness continued from page 5 pools, beaches, and on the water. They learn water rescue techniques, CPR, and first aid.

“This is where these boys show their true instincts,” said Berrocal.

“These are life skills they can take with them beyond a summer job.”

Trust Time at the Pre School this spring has featured discussion on what it means to feel proud. Boys took turns sharing different things that they liked about themselves to get a better understanding of the feeling. They raised their hands to share their pride for things like being a good friend, being kind, working hard, being trustworthy, scoring goals, and making other people laugh.

I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont provided more ideas — boys then had a chance to do an art project and draw themselves doing something that made them feel proud.

At the Lower School, the Trust Time topic was relationships, specifically friendships. Younger boys talked about friendship by discussing inclusiveness and fairness.

Horace and Morris, but Mostly Delores by James Howe provided fodder for discussion about ways friends leave each other out — as well as the ways they show fairness and inclusiveness and work to fix their problems.

“In the story, the friends went separate ways after a disagreement,” said Joey Zannino ’03, Lower School counselor. “Eventually, they realized they missed each other, and that it is better to be inclusive.”

Boys played a game of musical chairs, with the special challenge to play in a way that included everybody.

“This led to boys sharing seats, so that there was room for everyone, no matter how many more boys than chairs there were,” Zannino said. “The boys loved the opportunity to get up and move around the room while listening to music, and then they loved showing off how inclusive and considerate they could be to their classmates.”

Older boys also talked about friendship and practiced inclusiveness through group activities and a discussion of teamwork.

“We talked about how you cannot have teamwork without inclusiveness. If we leave someone out, they are no longer part of our team. We compared the class to a team. We talked about how Brunswick thinks teamwork is really important, and that is why all boys have to play sports in Middle and Upper School, so that they can practice and experience being part of a team.”

Bat’s Big Game by Margaret Read MacDonald enlightened the conversation further. The story features a bat that switches between playing for “The Animals” team and “The Birds” team, depending on who he thought was going to win.

“He was not being a good teammate or a good friend, and eventually was not allowed to play for either team,” Zannino said.

Boys then went up to the gym to practice teamwork through a game. Students had to hold hands with teammates and keep a balloon in the air. Boys started in pairs, then combined pairs for small groups, and then formed large groups.

“Boys all agreed that it was much easier to work with just one other person, but it was more fun to work with a bigger group, even if it required more communication and understanding,” Zannino said.

“Afterwards, we discussed what it felt like to be dependent on others in your group, how it felt to be included in the group, what it felt like to be paired randomly with someone and not your best friend, and how it felt to work together with others to accomplish a goal.” continued on page 7