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By LEE SHERMAN BETHEL, Alaska-Teacher Terry Jennings stands before a cluster of cross-legged kindergartners at the K-2 school Mikelnguut Elitnaurviat-"Little Children's School" in Yup'ik, the lyrical language of the Eskimo people native to this remote corner of southwest Alaska. Most folks just call the school M.E. "What does a good listener look like?" Jennings asks the fidgety kids, then pauses. "Joseph?" "They're not doing bad stuff," Joseph volunteers. "Misty?" "Keep your hands to yourself," she offers. "Fanny?" "Not pinch." Jennings points to a poster headed "Good Listening Rules." One by one, he reviews the rules: Raise hands. Keep hands and feet to yourself. Listen when someone is talking. ("We listen with our eyes and with our ears," Jennings reminds the small students, pointing first to his eyes, then to his ears.) And sit how? "Crisscross applesauce!" the children chime. Next he holds up a black-and-white photo of a little girl talking to a little boy. "Theresa is telling her cousin Raphael about a bad dream she had," Jennings explains to the students. "How does a bad dream make you feel?" "Scared," says Misty. "Mad," says Joseph. "Sad," says Catherine. Asks Jennings: "If something makes you feel mad or sad or scared, what could you do about it?" Answers pop up around the room: Open your eyes. Wake up and turn on the night light. Walk away. "Could you go talk to somebody about your dream?" Jennings prompts. "I had a dream last night about some bad guys!" one boy offers. Jennings once again draws their attention to the photo. "Raphael is definitely listening to Theresa," he says. "How do we know?" Catherine raises her hand. "He's looking at her," she says. Jennings nods. "He's not looking at an airplane or fiddling with something," he notes. The teacher then acts out a pantomime of a good listener, nodding thoughtfully, then putting his hand under his chin as though hanging on a speaker's every word. "I could also ask questions, like, 'What happened in your bad dream?'" Jennings coaches. "Sometimes," the teacher continues, "when you get angry or scared or sad, you blow up like a big balloon full of angry or scared or sad. When you talk to someone, it's like letting the air out of the balloon." To wrap up the 20-minute lesson, Jennings switches on a boom box. With lots of energetic wiggling, the kids clap and sing along with the recording:
"I feel proud when I build a big tower;
I feel mad when it gets knocked down.
I feel happy when I eat an ice cream cone;
I feel sad when it plops to the ground.
Whatever I feel, I'll tell you about it.
I might want to shout it,
Or whisper in your ear.
Whatever I feel, I'll tell you about it.
I'll tell you just how I feel, I feel.
I'll tell you just how I feel." Bullets and blood seem light-years from this peaceful scene at M.E. Yet this gentle lesson is the direct offspring of the terrible morning in 1997 when Bethel Regional High School lost two loved ones to a student's gunfire. Hoping to equip kids with better coping skills and problem-solving strategies, the school district adopted a curriculum that starts in the earliest years teaching children to recognize and understand feelings, to make positive and effective choices, and to keep anger from spinning out of control. The curriculum they chose is Second Step. Developed by the Seattle nonprofit group Committee for Children, Second Step was one of only 10 programs nationwide that rated an A in a recent report on antiviolence curricula (see the sidebar on Page 26 for a complete list of top-rated curricula). Besides praising the curriculum's "beautiful, high-quality materials," the report, Safe Schools, Safe Students by the nonprofit policy research group Drug Strategies, stressed the "rigorous ongoing evaluation (that) shows significant reductions in physical aggression in the classroom, as well as increased prosocial behavior." At M.E., where every staff person -from kindergarten teacher Jennings to the cook, the custodian, and the secretary-has been trained in the curriculum, children hear the same message from one end of campus to the other, says Principal Larry Ctibor. "Second Step gets everybody on the same track," he says. "Before, we had a school discipline plan and classroom rules, but different people were using a lot of different terminology to deal with problems. Now, no matter where they are at school-on the playground, in the lunchroom, library, PE, or walking down the hall-they'll hear the same phrases and vocabulary from everybody they encounter. When you follow that through, year after year, that's a powerful tool for working with kids." Second Step was built on research showing that violent criminals and juvenile offenders typically lack three basic skills needed for living peacefully in society: EMPATHY. Portraying empathy as the cornerstone of violence prevention, the Second Step teacher's guide explains that "because empathic people tend to understand other points of view, they are less likely to misunderstand and become angry about others' behaviors." IMPULSE CONTROL. The curriculum uses two proven strategies for teaching kids to act less impulsively and aggressively: problem solving, which teaches children to use reason in social situations; and behavioral skills training, which teaches "target behaviors," such as apologizing or joining in, that can be used in many situations. ANGER MANAGEMENT. Elementary- and middle-school kids learn to recognize anger cues and triggers; calm themselves down before anger takes hold; and think over the incident afterward. Younger children learn to calm themselves with deep breathing, counting, and coaching themselves with statements like "calm down." Overly aggressive and impulsive kids sap teachers' energy and rob classmates of learning time. Their peers often deride and reject them. Antisocial behavior-such as poking and pushing, rushing into things, behaving defiantly, interrupting others, and blurting out irrelevant thoughts-starts to show up as early as age three, according to the Second Step teacher's guide. "What is in store down the road for these high-risk children if their impulsive and aggressive behavior remains unchecked? Research shows that many are headed for a lifetime of failure, exacting a great toll from society," the guide states. Early and effective intervention can prevent the failure, abuse, and crime that can darken these children's futures-and harm those around them. By beginning with preschoolers, Second Step aims to steer kids early toward peaceful problem solving. The social skills children build when they're young may well stop them from lashing out later in life, the curriculum's creators argue. Ledger-sized posters are the main props in the preschool and elementary units of the Second Step curriculum. The once-a-week lessons each center on a different poster-sized photograph. Some depict children showing emotion. Others suggest a story. The photo that Jennings showed his kindergartners-"Theresa" telling "Raphael" about her bad dream-is an example. On the back of each poster, the lesson is laid out clearly for the teacher. The units are built around the three broad skill areas of empathy, impulse control, and anger management. Within those broad areas, each lesson targets a specific strategy or concept (example: active listening); presents a set of objectives (students will be able to demonstrate physical and verbal skills of active listening); provides questions for discussion ("Do you think Raphael is listening to Theresa? How can you tell?"); gives guidance for role plays (pairs of students demonstrate active listening); and offers suggestions for reinforcing the lesson throughout the week (calling attention to students who show good listening skills). Song tapes, like the one about sharing feelings Jennings played for his kindergartners, and a couple of loveable puppets-Impulsive Puppy and Slow-Down Snail- supplement the posters for the littlest kids. In middle school, the highest level of the curriculum, lessons revolve around videos and scripted role plays. (Bethel Regional High School has adopted a curriculum called Get Real About Violence, published by CHEF in Seattle, and another called the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) from the RCCP National Center in New York City.) Teacher Kathy Baldwin is a convert. Skeptical at first about using Second Step with her first-graders, ("I wasn't sure how they would relate to the pictures"), she was "amazed" at their eager response. "They were real interested, and they always had something to say about what was happening in their own lives," she recalls. When the posters portrayed anger, some children, particularly those who had older brothers or sisters, would relate the photo to the high school shooting spree of 11th-grader Evan Ramsey. Says Baldwin: "The kids would bring it up themselves. (They'd say), 'Oh, you mean getting mad like Evan did.'"
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Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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