1. The teachers and administrators understand the students' backgrounds and recognize that the students do not have the social skills necessary to work through their problems so this method teaches those.
2. One of the teachers stated that she not only saw a difference in her students’ behavior but her own as well.
3. The teachers stated that most of the problems arise from miscommunication.
Questions I have...
1. One of the teachers said “we punish but don’t talk.” How did we get to that place? In other words, why have we traditionally used punishment as the main way to control behavior and why is it taking us so long to shift to methods like restorative discipline?
2. Are the young (elementary age) students able to fully understand what is going on during these "circles?" I have always been taught that young children don’t have the emotional capacity to “talk it out.” (My dad always said you can’t reason with a child.)
I know nothing about child psychology. I also wonder how these techniques would differ for various ages.
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