An Eye-Opening Experience

I am currently finishing an internship with the Building Peaceable Schools program in DCPS. I have been working with a group of first graders at Lafayette Elementary school in NW Washington. For those unfamiliar with this area it is a relatively affluent neighborhood. In this internship I worked with the class on Tuesdays and Thursdays teaching them conflict resolution and peacemaking skills including problem solving techniques, emotional awareness, basic human needs, effective communication skills and diversity appreciation. These skills are taught using a method known as infusion in which I work the conflict resolution skills into their existing curriculum. It is general practice to begin such a process with community building activities. Such activities include sharing circles, teamwork exercises, classroom interviews and any other activity that builds trust among the students and a sense of belonging to the group. I had always considered myself someone who challenged children and gave them the credit they deserved. I found myself often frustrated with people who underestimate the abilities of young people. What I discovered about myself in the first week of this internship, however, was eye opening.

Our first lesson together was going to be infused with a story they were working on in reading class that dealt with a young girl drawing maps of all of the places she lived or played. I used this story as a way to infuse the concept of community, as discussed above. As a group we agreed that we would define a community as any place where someone feels he/she belongs and is a part of something (obviously we kept it broad and general). We then identified all of the different types of communities the little girl in the story belonged to followed by a brainstorm of other types of communities she "forgot" to mention. The students began with traditional ideas such as school, neighborhood etc. They eventually branched out to include ideas like "a tree", "a forest", "water (ocean, pond, stream)". After each idea I asked them to explain to the rest of us how their suggestion is an example of a community and to my delight they always could. Then the heart-melting example came. One of my students raised his hand and said "a homeless shelter". I was stunned, I told him that was a great idea and asked him to explain it to the rest of us. He said "Well, people who don't belong to a community come together to make their own". With tears in my eyes I added his example to the list. I was stunned at the depth of these students' understanding and awareness of the world around them. I had gone into the lesson expecting to have to help them along and instead they were the ones opening windows of insight for me. That day gave me a new appreciation for capabilities of young people and humbled me to the knowledge that I was most likely going to learn as much from them as they were from me.

-- Megan Toy