Creating the Peaceable School: A Comprehensive Program for Teaching Conflict Resolution

Imagine a school or classroom where learners manage and resolve their own conflicts, where students and teachers cooperate, where diversity is celebrated, where feelings are expressed in ways that are neither aggressive nor destructive, where responsibility is the norm.

Creating the Peaceable School presents a workable plan for achieving this vision. Central to the plan is the creation of a cooperative school environment, achieved through the institution of a rights and responsibilities approach to discipline and the liberal use of cooperative learning. Through the conflict resolution strategies of mediation, negotiation, and group problem solving, students learn to recognize, manage, and resolve conflicts in peaceful, noncoercive ways.