RELATIONSHIPS October 18, 2004 Issue

Peace talks in the third grade

By Laura Blatz

'We Don't Get Along. We can't be near each other," said one of my third-graders.

"And I don't want to sit near her," said the other girl.

During the years I taught school, I often heard similar comments from other students, sometimes including name-calling and racial epithets. As calmly as possible, I would usually respond, "But we have to get along. We all have to live in the same room for a whole year." The question was, How could it be done?