The virus or bacteria that can make you sick, or even cause death, are so small that we can not see them without massive magnification, yet these minute life forms control life and death. The affects of our behaviour, gestures, actions and words, sometime lasting less than a micro second, can change the way a person, with whom you are interacting, to have a good, or a bad day. Essentially, it is so important to realise that, "Everything counts."

One of the hottest topics often not talked about, but felt and acted upon at the base emotional level, is our attitudes and feelings about sexuality. Parents and just about everyone in our society have profoundly granite like attitudes towards all matters sexual, so much so, that it seems to be the main theme of music, literature and certainly our daily fill of television. The most remarkable thing about sexuality, is that our attitudes are not the result of that "talk" parents supposedly have with their children, about the birds and the bees, but instead, every person's established attitudes and behaviours about sex are established long before verbal conversation, questioning and comprehension have developed. Your kids and you, acquired attitudes about sexual behaviour by interpreting the actions of our parents and as a parent, your behaviour with your children and your interactions with those nearest and dearest to you. If you want your kids to have a healthy attitude towards their own sexuality, sort that problem out for yourself and the deed is done.

As a teacher, a principal and grown up person, I discovered that there are some things that we can do, that make such an impact on those we work with, the children who come into contact with us and our peers. To help everyone around you the most, offer encouragement and things get better and better. You would think the role of being a teacher is to point out to a learner where he or she has made a mistake, so they can correct their errors. Similarly, common sense would suggest that as a school principal, it would be your responsibility to point out to teachers their shortcomings so that you might have a better school. Rarely are either of these things effective. To get the most out of your teaching, or supervision, offer encouragement, especially for the good things you spot in a student, or teacher's work.

I realise that most people who read this are not teachers, or principals, well at least they don't think of themselves that way, but we all are teachers and we are all supervising principals in one way or another. Every person we encounter needs to be assured of their worth, their positive contribution to your life and they need to know what is good. Most people handle this with a smile. A smile is the biggest reward most of us can receive. We have been trained, even before birth, to smile and in our earliest days, we discover the power of positive facial expression. But there is more than smiles that work. Most or our actions, that have the greatest impact are nonverbal, but at the same time, what we say and how we say it, can really tell others how we feel and that in turn, is their reward. Studies have shown that teachers can not be paid enough to do their work, as most of them get so much of a reward from the awareness of their affects on their students, that they would, if they could, work for nothing, because they know how important, what they do, really is.

So tomorrow, make somebody's day, smile, give them a compliment, offer encouragement and put the negativity that might sometimes slip out, out of sight and out of mind.