Karen Colaric Article on Social Justice and ... - Park Day School

Social Justice and Affective Education at PDS: The “Park Day” Way
By <strong>Karen</strong> <strong>Colaric</strong>, Lower School Coordinator
Inclusion and Community
When I first began teaching at Park, I often heard the phrase, “the Park School way.”
This refers to progressive, constructive teaching practices and methods of
interacting with students and holding the classroom community and children’s
social/emotional development at the heart of our work. This aspect of the
curriculum—community building, inclusion, and celebration of diversity-­‐-­‐is the
foundation for all of the rest of the work that we do. Creating a safe environment in
which everyone is taught the skills of cooperation, kindness and effective
communication to solve social problems is embedded in our work everyday with
children. Though these are lifelong skills to develop and more easily learned in the
classroom than employed on the playground, we believe they can be taught both
through structured lessons and through working through real life experiences here
at school together. Children learn early that contributing positively to the culture of
the class and school and solving conflicts constructively is something we both value
and expect, and that mistakes and crises are opportunities for learning.
Children’s Development and the Unplanned Curriculum
Affective education is the most responsive aspect of our curriculum. When I drop in
on classrooms, it is so common for me to observe a teacher leading some unplanned,
quick discussion to acknowledge and resolve small incidents and teach social skills. I
see them gently drawing in a child who is misbehaving by helping him or her
become a leader or lend a hand to another child. I see explicit discussions about
exclusion, popularity, cliques, stereotypes. Though there are certain behaviors and
issues that we might expect at different stages of children’s development and
therefore can plan class meetings and lessons on them, we also respond often and in
the moment when they arise.
We capitalize on “teachable moments” as well as what Alison Park refers to as
“classroom 911’s”—issues that arise that are more severe and call upon us to reach
deeply into our well of skills to name and interrupt hurtful words or behavior and
support children in discussing and resolving the incident as best as we can. It is not
easy, and it takes all of the players on the team working closely together: teachers,
students, administration and often most importantly, families.
The Planned Curriculum: Social Justice
Deliberate lessons in building character are as planned and deliberate as our
academic curriculum. Lessons from past CARE weeks on bullying and race have
been incorporated into the curriculum each year. In sixth grade, for example, a
lesson originally from Destiny Arts staff on shared power (power over / power
with) is now integral to the fall curriculum and a part of the class’ throughline.

Teachers reference this throughline regularly in social studies, literature and
classroom dynamics and the concept deepens.
Issues in social justice are a central force in organizing our curriculum. We have
documented our social justice curriculum and it will soon be available in a synopsis
in the curricular matrix that is under construction for our school’s website.
To give you a glimpse of this curriculum, here is the institutional throughline that
we developed:
We work to create an environment that is safe and equitable for students, families
and staff, and provides tools and knowledge that inspires students to be courageous
agents of change in the community and beyond.
Definitions of Social Justice for students:
K – 1-­‐-­‐Each of us is unique. We recognize that we are the same in many ways and
different in others. We are an important part of larger communities. We have a
personal and social responsibility to recognize, respect and support the needs and
rights of others.
2 – 3-­‐-­‐We are a unique and important part of a world community, with needs and
feelings, and the right to have them met. We have a personal and social
responsibility and the capacity to act as advocates towards social justice and change.
4 – 5-­‐-­‐We understand that each individual matters. We all share a history that
includes discrimination and oppression of some people, and this affects all of us. We
have a responsibility to work together to create a world where we share equal
rights and equal respect.
6 – 8-­‐-­‐We have the ability and responsibility to use our privilege, knowledge and
skills to effect change in our community and in the world. We have the self-­determination
to view the world through multiple perspectives and with the
awareness of societal, historical and institutional injustices.
Conflict Resolution
Naturally, most conflicts occur on the playground when children are less directly
supervised and are sharing space, play equipment and negotiating balls games
without a referee. We step in frequently to help children problem solve and resolve
conflicts. We take an active approach to preempt issues whenever we can. This has
been key to helping children who are impulsive or emotionally overwhelmed better
manage their feelings and behavior.
When conflicts arise, most often we apply conflict resolution steps and get the
children together to talk, sometimes after a cooling off period. They learn to say,
“Stop” in a strong, clear tone of voice. They learn to look at their “friend’s” face (a
term we use very deliberately) to help read their emotions. They learn to check in
with one another when they have made a mistake or had an accident, and perhaps

most importantly, to look at possible motives for misbehavior. If someone disrupts a
game, what could be behind that behavior? Children learn that often misbehavior or
mistakes are attempts to get our needs met, and that we can name and talk about
that openly in a safe environment. We also teach children to use “I statements.” I
statements include one’s feelings and both name what is not working and what
would work instead. We talk about bullying behavior and the roles of bystanders,
allies and activists, and how to take a risk and speak up in the moment. Apologies
are not forced; rather, needs and feelings are acknowledged and met as best as
possible. We talk about what has been learned and can be applied in the future.
The Role of Staff
When your child reports or is involved in an incident of concern at school, please
engage the appropriate staff. This is usually the child’s primary teacher. If an
incident happened in after school or a specialist program it is best to engage the
supervising adults in charge and make sure that the primary teacher is also briefed
on the situation so they can play a supportive role. We also often hear of incidents
that happen on the weekend during soccer games, parties and playdates, phones
and in cyberspace. We appreciate hearing about these incidents as they often have
an impact at school and help us understand some of the more complex relationships
between children more thoroughly. Administrators are also available to support the
teachers and students in problem solving and keeping track of issues and successful
strategies. Flo is the primary administrator to contact for Bk-­‐1 st grade students;
<strong>Karen</strong> for 2 nd through 5 th grade students; and Ray for 6 th – 8 th grade students. We all
report out to Tom and bring him in whenever necessary.
As children get older, it is natural that they may be reluctant to share the incident
with a teacher or administrator or to have you share it. They may worry that about
there could be some sort of ramifications for telling. Teachers and administrators
are skilled and experienced in structuring classroom discussions to prevent a
problem from being exacerbated from bringing it out in the open, and it is actually
rare for issues to escalate when brought out into the open. Reassure your child that
the problem can be solved and help them approach the appropriate adults when
necessary.
School Response
There are many traditions that we use throughout the grades and aspects of the
curriculum that are planned and emphasized each year. Every grade uses class
meetings to resolve problems. Students help generate the agenda and as they are
older, facilitate the meeting. In all grades the emphasis is on solving the problem
through student ideas. Every class has guidelines for behavior and student
generated classroom agreements. Every class uses a variety of other class meeting
formats, often daily circle time check-­‐ins. Time is made in the classroom to
acknowledge successes, and to model appropriate behavior and appreciations.
Feelings are acknowledged. A great deal of attention is given to developing a
positive classroom culture. There are buddy systems for new students and

opportunities for older children to mentor and set positive examples for younger
children.
If issues are complex or endemic the school responds very directly and continues to
respond and consider all our alternatives to address ongoing issues. In the recent
past we have:
• Engaged individual children and families in problem solving sessions. When
problematic behavior patterns arise, we have made student personalized student
contracts signed by student and parents.
• Increased the level of supervision of the yard. Teachers and assistant teachers
have been used to more closely monitor individual children and/or groups or
areas of the yard where issues arise repetitively.
• Temporarily restricted games that have become too volatile. Children have
worked with an adult to create new rules that work better for everyone.
• Used restorative justice techniques. We ask children to consider what will help
hurt feelings get resolved, and what will help those who’ve hurt others make
amends. Children may work together on a project or need of the school and get
an opportunity to restore feelings of trust and connection to their peers.
• Consulted with outside professionals, such as Sheri Wong, Michael Simon, and
Cherine Baladwi, as well as provided parent evenings with administration and
outside professionals.
• Appealed to the best in children by engaging them in the identification and
solution of problems. Children have helped to design a “bullying survey” and have
worked with administrators to analyze the data and report it to the class as well
as work on solutions together. Children participating in the behavior are
sometimes pulled in as leaders and problem solvers.
• Had administrators speak to classes and address the issue openly and directly
with expectations and consequences—including reflection time out of class.
• Utilized curriculum such as “Let’s Get Real” and provided professional
development for staff. Recent examples include work with BLINK (Alison Park),
Positive Discipline, Non-­‐Violent Communication and Mosaic.
• Suspended students from participation in school. There are times when the best
strategy is to have the student away from the school environment and their peers
for a period of time. This consequence allows the student to be home with
his/her family to explore more deeply the issues that have arisen as a result of
the behavior.
• Expelled Students. In rare occasions, the school may decide that the best course
of action is to ask a student to leave the school. Chronic egregious or hurtful
behavior will not be tolerated at the school, and if a student poses a serious risk
to others, he or she will no longer be allowed to be part of the Park Day School
community.

The Role of Parents
When your child comes home relating an incident at school, respond with
appropriate concern and engage him or her in a constructive discussion that
assumes cooperation between home and school and that all the adults in the child’s
life are working together and committed to resolving issues when they come up. Just
as children need time to develop and readily use concepts in language, science and
math, they need time to fully internalize the social behaviors that they are being
taught at home and at school. And, each child is on her or her own personal path in
their social development, awareness of others and using good judgment. In adult
facilitated discussions, we can see them at their best and see that they do indeed
have tools, knowledge and a desire to be a contributing member of a healthy school
community. When issues arise and they are upset or engaged in a conflict, it is not so
easy for them to access that knowledge and use it in the moment. When we are
facilitating discussion between children to resolve conflicts and we ask them to tell
us what they said and did, young children often relate language that they did not
actually use. If they had used that language, the conflict would have been avoided.
So, we know that they know, and they are still developing self-­‐control to use in the
moment, as we are as adults as well. It is expected that older students will test and
push boundaries, and make mistakes that have a much greater impact on
themselves and their peers.
When incidents arise, parents can:
• Separate the deed and the doer. Label behavior and not children.
• Ask your child questions with appropriate tone and open curiosity. Listen more
than you talk.
• Empathize. Reflect back their feelings and ask if you’ve got it right. This helps
them feel heard and helps them develop further language that they can use to
describe and understand their feelings.
• Ask questions that promote personal reflection and solutions: What did you think
about that? What did you say or do? How did you feel at the time? How do you
feel now? What are you thinking of doing next? What are your ideas on how this
can be resolved?
We also highly recommend that parents engage one another in a dialogue. This is
often very effective if done in a spirit of working together and mutual problem
solving. We all want our children to do well socially, to have friends and to
contribute positively. We want to help them when they need our help. Parent to
parent conversations, when done respectfully and with understanding, are often key
to resolving issues.