What is The Peaceable Classroom? What Can Be Achieved?I was invited this year by one Bay Area classroom to help create a climate of peace within their group to support the children in their optimal learning and positive sense of community. Perhaps I could set up a table or give a presentation? This question has paved the way for more sustainable and lasting change in classroom dynamics and inspires my research and writing for:
Creating the Peaceable Classroom:
How to Facilitate Emotional Awareness and Friendship-Building for Our Children
Grade Level: Pre-K
A special component that deserves more attention and forms the basis for the handbook is this: The essential work with emotions; their three functions, their deescalation and their harnessed, creative power in the total approach towards creating a culture of peace in the microcosm of the classroom and has implications for the school, family, community and world:
How to Facilitate Emotional Awareness and Friendship-Building for Our Children
Grade Level: Pre-K
A special component that deserves more attention and forms the basis for the handbook is this: The essential work with emotions; their three functions, their deescalation and their harnessed, creative power in the total approach towards creating a culture of peace in the microcosm of the classroom and has implications for the school, family, community and world:
1. The Peaceable Classroom is a fun, safe place that will expand our children’s capacity to understand, express and regulate their own emotions to ask for what they want and need.
2. It will nurture their ability to build friendships and make peace with others as their skills deepen in practices of: Empathy, Compassion, Nonviolence, Fairness, Trust, Respect for Self, Respect for others, Respect for their surroundings and Celebration of Diversity.
3. It will inspire their ability to create solutions that benefit more than just themselves.
This work is achieved by the children, facilitated by their teachers, and supported by their families. Vital first steps in creating a program for any group is to observe, listen, and conduct extensive needs assessments for all involved in creation and implementation. Consult with experts on developmentally appropriate programming. Plan for evaluation and follow-up to assess needed change. Include parents and children in soliciting feedback.
There are many ways to create The Peaceable Classroom. This handbook will provide options for exercises and ideas in the following chapters:
• Emotions (Working With the Child)
• Music, Song, Movement and Dance
• Art (Drawing, Painting, Constructing, Sculpting)
• Theatre (Role-play, Puppetry, Storytelling)
• Children’s Literature
• Sensory Exploration (Working with texture and weight)
• Group Games and One Group Project.
We are positioned to plan adaptations of this short handbook for multiple grade levels and working towards translation in at least eight languages to reach our multilingual communities. I truly look forward to writing the Acknowledgments page.
Recommended Reading:Holding These Truths: Empowerment and Recognition in Action : Interactive Case Study Curriculum for Multicultural Dispute Resolution
