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Each morning over the school intercom, two students remind the Glenfair community of learners to:
"Take care of yourself,
It's the "everybody" that's unique about these school rules. Over nearly a decade, students and staff have learned together how to form a peaceful place for all those who enter. Eight years ago, when I took the principal's post at Glenfair Elementary School in the Reynolds School District, I brought two key staff members from my previous school, Alder Elementary. Together, this counselor, teacher, and I had led Alder in training all 600 students in resolving conflicts using the Law Related Education curriculum, which features conflict resolution as a key prong. This effort earned us the School of the Year Award from Oregon Law Related Education. Parents at Glenfair, desiring a more peaceful place for their children to learn and play, asked us to bring conflict resolution to their school, too. We knew that all students need these skills. So our first task was to teach all the fourth- and fifth-graders about conflict and how to mediate for each other. We sent out student "peacekeepers" to help their younger peers during the primary recess. Our next task was to train the primary students in problem solving. We set out then to create a climate free of threat. Susan Kovalik of Kent, Washington, who trained us in her concept of "brain-compatible teaching," stresses the idea that if children are in a threatening environment, their brains are in survival mode. Thinking at a higher level is shut down. Kids can't learn. So the first thing schools need to do is make kids feel safe. To create that safe environment, we taught students a set of 15 "life skills" (such as integrity, initiative, flexibility, and humor) and five "lifelong guidelines" (such as truthfulness and active listening) identified by Kovalik. Conflicts or mistakes arise, she says, when people fail to use these fundamental tenets. The staff identified other practices that would become consistent throughout the school. We agreed on a three-step problem-solving model (derived from Blueprints for Thinking in a Cooperative Classroom) for daily class meetings. At the class meeting-which would start and end with complimenting one another-students could bring up problems for discussion, using two questions and a choice to steer the talk: 1. What do you think the problem is? 2. What do you think you should do? 3. Choose a solution. As students began to ponder solutions, we realized they needed a set of consistent ideas to draw upon. We settled on a tool called the Kelso Wheel, a mandala that offers nine options for dealing with conflict (take turns, apologize, tell them to stop, ignore it, and so on). Published by Rhinestone Press in Kelso, Oregon, the wheel was introduced to Glenfair kids beginning in kindergarten. At a staff retreat, we decided to add a weekly all-school meeting where students could see the entire school modeling compliments and using Kovalik's life skills. Each Wednesday morning, everyone gathers in the gym. We start with birthday recognition and announcements about events. Then a student from each classroom gives a compliment to someone in the school and names the life skill that person exhibits. The research is very clear on the importance of modeling. So the entire staff agreed to "walk our talk." We needed to become adult role models for resolving problems using peaceful alternatives. In our newsletter, we shared with parents the direction we were headed and asked for their support. We held "family nights" to inform parents about all the learning we were putting into practice. Training in Blueprints for Thinking in a Cooperative Classroom (Skylights Publishing, Palatine, Illinois) helped us recognize the group process at work in our school and in our classrooms. We learned that groups typically go through a team-building process in which they form, norm, conform, and storm before they can perform. "Storming" is a questioning phase, when personalities can tug and pull against each other. It can rip the group apart if members don't have good conflict-resolution practices in place. As we pay attention to this process and give students ways to recognize "storming" in their school and in their lives, we are seeing our school feel and perform in more peaceful ways. Kids are taking their new skills home with them. One mom was taken aback when her fifth-grade son offered to mediate an argument between his parents. When a family conflict arose in another home, a child said to her mother, "Let's look for a solution on the Kelso wheel hanging on the fridge." Even more exciting, our state test scores have risen each year of this journey. Last year, more than 70 percent of our third-graders met or exceeded the standard in both reading and math. As these students move through our school, we will be watching to see if these results carry over to fifth grade. The key elements to our success, I believe, are time and consistency. Schools do not become successful overnight. One of my beliefs is captured in a quote from the great peacemaker Mahatma Gandhi: "There is no road to peace. Peace is the road." Anita Harder brings more than 30 years of education experience to her post as Principal of Glenfair Elementary School in Portland, Oregon. She has attended a number of training programs in peaceable education practices, including Harvard Principals' Center training on conflict resolution, led by Educators for Social Responsibility; and Leading the Cooperative School, led by Roger Johnson and David Johnson, codirectors of the Cooperative Learning Center, University of Minnesota.
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Date of Last Update: 9/28/01 
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