Should Students Be Involved In Conflict Resolution?

A past interview.

We had an opportunity to interview the new Superintendent of School District 2 a few months ago. Dr. Garcia was kind enough to come in and answer any questions that we had and to address some concerns about the school district.

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One topic of discussion was the dismal proficiency numbers we were getting in math and reading. When asked about possible solutions he was very adamant about getting the most out of the time that teachers have. He said we only have the students for about 7 hours and we need to use that time more efficiently. Spend more time with subject matter than other things. I agree.

This new course.

So, now I'm trying to figure out why they want to start teaching courses on conflict resolution.  That means less time for the core subjects that they are falling behind in. I'm not sure we even want students to get involved in some tense moment and try to resolve the problem. I love "see something, say something" but the the conflicts should be handled by professionals.

The other thing that I would have been interested in was who is going to teach it. What's their background and who wrote the material they will use to teach it? All of that makes a difference in the approach to resolving conflicts. I read many of School District 2's books, the Introduction to Psychology book is trash and should be thrown out of the curriculum. I even looked at the background of the author and that explained the approach in the book.  Be careful moving forward with this...

See ya tomorrow at 5.