Everyone has memories of recess during elementary school, though some may be less pleasant than others. From disagreements on who gets to use the slide to fights over games of four-square, the kinetic energy of children can sometimes be untamed and lead to unfortunate scuffles.
The vigilant students of Will Rogers Learning Community are choosing to fight back, or rather stop fighting in the first place. This past school year, Will Rogers Principal Lila Daruty and Counselor Khatija Dadabhoy launched the Peacemakers initiative, giving students the chance to learn conflict resolution skills and foster a school culture of belonging and respect.
In October 2023, the initial class of 25 Peacemakers donned bright orange vests with peace signs on the back, taking turns in the Will Rogers yard every recess and lunch time to support classmates in potential disputes. Both Daruty and Dadabhoy wanted to instill the peer mediation model in order to give students autonomy to resolve their own issues.
“Here at Will Rogers, we really tried to center all of our instruction and our decisions on what’s best for students, and so thinking with students first, we knew that if we wanted to change or adjust the culture of our school and teach students tools around conflict resolution, that you’d be best to start with our students,” Daruty said.
The Principal and Counselor went into Will Rogers classrooms early in the year to begin a peer nomination process, detailing what kind of qualities Peacemakers should have. Students chose to nominate themselves or others, and once students were selected for the program, they began training under Dadabhoy’s guidance.
“In that training, they learned the sort of basics of conflict resolution, of solving problems, but also they learned foundational skills … things like active listening, perception, being able to see things from different perspectives and seeing that two people may have the same problem, but see it very differently,” Dadabhoy said. “We [needed] to understand that there is no right or wrong, there’s just differing perceptions.”
Students brainstormed “win-win” solutions to potential playground problems, and their presence provided peers with someone their age to speak with.
“I think [the program] should be at every school because sometimes there could be secret bullies that teachers and adults don’t know about, because kids can be shy to tell,” Will Rogers fifth grader Shanti Haarten-Marchevsky told Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Communications Specialist Diana Bouchaaya. “I think it’s really important kids have someone they can talk to.”
The Peacemakers group has indeed had time to share their knowledge, making appearances at a Parent-Teacher Association meeting and other district events. Only a few months into the program, Daruty said they’re already getting questions from around the district on how to expand, and is already seeing the new Peacemakers “igniting a desire to be of service to their friends [and] our community.”
“I think they bring a way for students to become empowered and to feel sort of agency and sovereignty in working with themselves and working with others,” Dadabhoy said. “They have the capacity [to] solve their own problems, and it brings them skills that they may not be getting elsewhere.”
thomas@smdp.com
