I did! These are people too. I absolutely feel that they need to be taught how to be effective socially as well as educationally. I had a student in my first year teaching. He was a fourth grader who everyone warned me about. I was told he got in to fights everyday and I should really watch out for him. Well, I handled him differently than any teacher before me. I asked him what helped him to diffuse? I asked him if he could tell when he was starting to get angry, before he lost his temper. Together we came up with a plan that allowed him to deal with his own temper his own way. Lo and behold he became a straight A student who only got into two fights the whole year!
We also did peer counseling in the later elementary grades. Kids brought each other to a panel of their peers to try to talk out their problems. It was a very popular way for the students to make sure their problems were heard and understood. As students enter 4th and 5th grade social problems become a bigger issue and learning to deal with them without telling a teacher was essential. Nobody wants to be a tattletale but they also don’t want to get picked on. I watched these kids learn respect and responsibility from peer counseling, it was very exciting!

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