Sixth-grader Ivory Kelly finished up an English assignment at the blackboard. Then...Ping! Ping! He felt staples pelting his head. The 12-year-old just knew who was dissing him. He spun around and shouted at DeAngela Byrd. DeAngela claimed she was innocent. Then she called Ivory a "guinea pig." "Hosemouth!" he yelled back.
Their teacher, Linda Mann, didn't send them to the principal. She didn't even make them stand in the hall. Instead, she sent them to work things out in a small storage room in this Nashville, Tennessee, school. The room is Glengarry Elementary's mediation (me-dee-ay-shun) center.
Mediation in school is a way to solve disputes without having teachers punish students. Kids called mediators are trained to listen to classmates accused of misbehaving or fighting. Withouttaking sides, the mediators help troubled kids come up with their own solutions. It usually takes no more than 15 minutes.
At Glengarry, 30 students from third through sixth grade are trained to settle fights. After calmly discussing the staple attack and name calling with sixth-grade mediators Michael Reese and Tracie Thacker, Ivory and DeAngela signed a pledge "not to mess with each other."
No Detention, No Time Out
Many U.S. elementary schools are starting to give kids more responsibility for discipline. In the past 10 years, one-tenth of the nation's 86,000 public schools have started programs to resolve conflicts, mostly in middle or high schools. But educators want to begin more mediation programs sooner. They say elementary-age kids are even better at talking about their
feelings and deciding on a fair solution than older kids are! When a teacher or principal is not involved, "kids talk more freely," says Glengarry principal Lorraine Johnson.
So far, mediation seems to work well. In a 1996 survey of 115 Ohio elementary schools with mediation programs, 2 out of 3 noted a decrease in fights, and more than half said fewer kids were being sent to the principal's office. In New Mexico reports of bad behavior in elementary schools have dropped 86% since mediation programs began.
Glengarry mediator David Townley, 11, says the method really works, and not just in school. He used his new skills to help end a long-running battle between his grandmother and mother. "My grandmother thought my mother kept spending too much on flowers she planted outside our house," said David. "I let both of them talk. Finally my mother agreed not to spend so much." And nobody had to stand in the corner either.