Creative Solutions to Conflict (1 min read)

Last night I attended a presentation by Todd Erickson, a head teacher at a child-centered nursery school.  Someone asked what he would do if children were rough housing a little too much and it was creating a problem.  He answered that he saw something similar with pretend weapon play--a few older boys were pretending to use weapons to fight bad guys, and some younger kids got scared.

He explained that he took the boys aside and assigned a section of the playground as a pretend weapon zone.  Then he asked the boys to come up with some ground rules to make sure everyone was safe while playing in that zone.  Then the kids went off to play.

Everyone who wanted to play with pretend weapons got to explore that, and those who did not want to participate got to keep a safe distance.

I was struck at the ease with which this teacher came up with a compromise that respected everyone's choice to play/not play with weapons while keeping everyone safe.  Many adults (myself included) might have told the kids playing with pretend weapons to cut their play short--probably with some blend of admonition and concern.

This talk was a great reminder that a conflict does not have to have a winner and a loser (or a bad guy and good guy).  Everyone's view can be represented with a creative solution.

Warm regards,

-Mariya