|
We, as parents, staff, business leaders, and community members, are
concerned that disruption, aggression and violence have become common
themes in our lives and the lives of our children. It seems that no one is
able to escape this trend. Our belief at Ben Rush is
that to some degree, each of us is responsible for either increasing or
decreasing the peace in our homes, schools, and communities. We must all
work together to create a conscious America that fosters happiness, better
relationships, more productivity and well-being in our community.
PeaceBuilders™ is a
research-based program that is simple yet extraordinarily effective in
building cooperation, collaboration and teamwork, while reducing acts of
aggression. Young children must learn this before they have developed
maladaptive ways of surviving a seemingly hostile world. One part of
PeaceBuilders™ is proactive intervention for school children. Other
parts include community-wide violence and crime reduction. Entire
communities that have adopted PeaceBuilders™ have seen dramatic
decreases in violence, shoplifting, graffiti, while community spirit and
involvement increases.
Five goals guide
PeaceBuilders™: praising people; giving up put-downs; seeking wise
people for help and for friends; noticing and speaking up about hurts and
righting wrong; and getting things done. PeaceBuilders™ understand that
they alone are responsible for their behavior and they look for daily
opportunities to increase, rather than decrease, the peace.
|
|
Benjamin Rush celebrated
its adoption of PeaceBuilders™ with a launch assembly and luncheon in
January, 1997. Mayor Rosemarie Ives, former Superintendent Ron Barnes and
former Principal Janice Heid addressed the assembled students, staff and
community members. Students sang peace songs they had learned from former
music teacher Sandy Price, and all pledged to be PeaceBuilders at school
and in the community. |
Results from the
PeaceBuilder™ program show in many ways at Ben Rush. One of the most
significant is in playground behavior. As students use the guidelines,
behaviors and decision-making improved, and far fewer warning and
discipline slips need to be issued. At the end of the 1996-97 school year,
the first as a PeaceBuilder™ school, the number of such slips had fallen
by approximately 40% when compared to the previous year. Playground aides
were able to focus more attention on positive playground behaviors, and
issued over 900 playground praise notes during the year!
Check out the
PeaceBuilders™
Home Page for more information.
|
