“This school just feels so friendly!” Visitors appreciate the welcoming atmosphere, and don’t hesitate to let staff know. That comes with mutual respect, compassion and individuals—both students and staff—being invested in the choices and process of the school. This begins when everyone has input into the school’s belief statement and routinely checks decisions and behavior against it. When each person in the school is on the same page, trust and mutuality follow.
Optimal learning happens with trust, fun, challenge and opportunities for success. The social environment—very important for learning--improves when students develop ownership for their learning, needs, and solving their own social conflicts. As a social laboratory, the elementary school provides golden opportunities to create interpersonal habits within students’ developing brains.
The foundation of Peace Place is an adaptation of Restitution/Diane Gossen’s terms* for students and staff: Safety, Success, Choices, Fun, and Belonging. All grades are taught to communicate their concerns with reference to which of their needs are “missing”—or when they sense they are about to lose control. Each participating classroom identifies a Peace Place, marked by a Peace Rug where individuals go to privately review their needs and regain control. Important principle: the students themselves make their own decision to go to the Peace Place; it’s not served as a punishment upon them by another. When they “own” the problem and solution, the learning lasts.
While on the Peace Rug, they are in a “bubble”; no one else talks to them or makes reference to their activity. In cases of interpersonal conflict, students are taught to make arrangements to go to the Peace Place with their peer and follow the Peace Place Steps which were displayed on a laminated “Stop” sign in the area. The steps include Stop: Cool Down, Think Together: Talk and Listen without interrupting, Options: List things you can do to fix the problem, Plan: Choose a plan, Shake Hands, Carry it out.
Since recess time allows the most flexibility for student initiated discussion, three Peace Place Benches are available on the playground for students to use during recess. Benches, rugs and signs were purchased through Safe and Drug Free grants. Adults observe from a distance, and students are often eager to share their successful negotiations and plans with their teachers and parents. School counselors meet with students to support their follow-up plans. Parents are delighted when their children report successful resolution of the problem. Some mothers share stories of children “turning every rug in the house into a peace rug” for the process to continue at home.
Schools with an atmosphere of compassion, mutual respect, fostering student ownership in goals, plans and activities encourage optimal learning. For more information on Peace Place, please send an email through “Contact Us” on www.ourbrainbuddies.com
*Restitution/Gossen’s needs: Survival, Power, Freedom, Fun, Belonging
© Sandra Sunquist Stanton MS, NCC, LPC, Connections of the Heart LLC
For additional articles and information, visit www.ourbrainbuddies.com and send an email through Contact Us.