Why I love going to my job every day:

Real quotes from real children!

Re: the war in Iraq:
"They should just have a competition.  There should be three games and whoever wins should get to be the government."

re: Sudan
"It's a big country so they should just share."

Re: homelessness
"The people with lots of money should give a little money so the people without houses could get houses.  This is a problem everywhere."

Re: What you should do when your teenager keeps calling you at work:
"Make him sleep outside."

Re: Outside playtime:
"I'M GONNA RUN TIL I'M OLD!!!!

Re: The important things in life:
"When's snack?????????????????????????????????????????????????????

"Aggressive" play

Looking for teacher and parent input. We have had some discussion about how much (if any) aggreesive play should be allowed at school, in the classroom, on the playground, even in the children's artwork.  Examples we see include a variety of "shooting" and "exploding" when playing with construction materials such as blocks and legoes.  Playing superheroes with pretend light sabers, etc. and drawing/writing about shooting, killing, exploding, bombs, etc. Our public school ave a zero tolerance policy about weapons and weapon look-alikes.  We feel the need to follow peace principles recommended by Montessori,  yet we need to prepare the children for a smooth transition to public school, while at the same time wanting to acknowledge and guide the children's need to process aggression and the good-evil conflict they see and know about from games, TV, etc.  How about the new Iowa gun laws in the mix? WHAT DO YOU TEACHERS THINK/DO ABOUT THIS?  WHAT DO YOU PARENTS DO?  WHAT DO PARENTS THINK THE SCHOOL POLICY SHOULD BE?  Dads please chime in because research sometimes blames the largely female teaching profession with an overall "female" tendency toward non-aggression, and say fantasy aggressive play is necessary for some chidlren.  Is aggressive play something young children need to process through play?  If so, how do we prepare them for zero tolerance in our public schools?

Parents and peacemakers?

I would also be interested in how parentsof 5-7 year olds feel about introducing them to rather touchy subjects related to peace such as war, racism, etc. How do you answer their questions when these issues come up?

Peace Education

This month we have been talking about great peacemakers such as Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Rosa Parks, the Dalai Lama.  I would be interested to hear what other primary or lower el classes do to introduce rather serious concepts to younger children.