Ironton Elementary to have Day of Niceness

John Maynard wants you to have a nice day.

Actually, he wants everyone to have a nice day. So the Ironton Elementary principal is starting small by having the school’s students, teachers and staff try it out with a “Day of Nice” today.

The concept came to him just a couple days ago.

“I thought, wouldn’t it be nice to just have a nice day, like you knew it was going to be nice day.

I need that,” he said. “So I decided to challenge everyone to have a nice day.”

The reason for the “Day of Nice” is that there seems to be so much negative news in the world.

“It takes a toll on people,” he said. “We can’t stem the flow of negativity but we can try to give our kids a little bit of resources and some positives.”

He said the goal from now until the first of the year is to get people feeling positive and help them do better on tests. That’s why the kick off day is Friday, which is generally when the elementary students take their weekly tests.

“It’s easier to take a test when you come to school knowing it is going to be a good day,” Maynard said. “And I think it will help them be more creative, be better learners. It’s when people are feeling negative that they start focusing on the dark side of things and start shutting down.”

So today, everyone coming and going to the school is asked to be upbeat.

“We’re going to be nice, greet each other with manners and compliments and be positive,” Maynard said. “We are not going to allow ourselves to be drawn into negativity or negative stories.”

He said he is not only challenging himself, the students and the staff, but also parents.

“Just try to go all day and be nice to people,” he said.

He is going to be handing out smiley stickers and students are going to post on the walls of the school compliments they have given and ones they received.

“We’re going to go through the day trying to look on the bright side of things,” Maynard said. “That’s the goal, to turn fake smiles into real smiles.”