Delaware sixth-graders learn techniques for resolving disputes

Published: 2005-12-12

WILMINGTON, Del. (CNS) -- The eight students lined up, four on one side, four on the other. One group stepped forward and pushed the others. Would a fight begin? That was the question confronting sixth-graders at Nativity Preparatory School in Wilmington one afternoon this fall. As part of Pacem in Vita (Peace in Life), a 10-week class in conflict resolution, the students were learning different responses to situations in which they might find themselves. Conflicts do not necessarily involve fighting and violence, instructor Jack Sol-Church said. As one student offered by way of personal experience, a conflict could be a dispute over which sibling gets the TV's remote control. Sol-Church teaches tai chi, a martial art that uses breathing and movement to reduce stress and increase concentration. Taking a breath, he told the boys, "increases the gap" between action and response, "which allows us more opportunity to choose a better response." Nativity is a Catholic middle school that offers a free education to boys from economically disadvantaged backgrounds in grades five through eight.

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