Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/building-peaceable-classroom-communities-counteracting-the-impact-of-violence-on-young-children/5018357/
A group of kindergartners are outside playing Power Rangers®. Three children begin arguing over who will be the ‘bad guy’ that the Power Rangers® will capture. Things start heating up as one child starts to drag a struggling child toward the ‘prison’ area. Jason comes over, puts an arm on each child’s shoulder and says, “Come on! If we real-l-l-ly want to play this game, we have to figure out how to solve this problem!”�"�"�"�"�"
Henry walks into his preschool classroom the morning after his father was arrested in his home for battering his mother. Henry says sadly, “I won’t see my daddy anymore because he’s in jail and we don’t have a car to go visit him.” Another child quickly jumps in and says, “You’re wrong. My daddy’s in jail and we go visit him on the bus. You can take the bus to see your daddy too!”
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These two accounts differ a great deal in terms of the nature of the event the children are trying to deal with: Jules is helping his friends to deal with a conflict on the playground. Henry’s friends are helping him deal with his fears after he witnessed a very scary event at ...