Cooling conflict in the cool classroom.

• Author: Mildon, Marsha

Conflict is everywhere. Conflict is as simple as wanting to go to a movie when your best friend wants to go skating. Conflict is as complex as the motivations of extremists with one philosophy wanting to kill those with other philosophies. Conflict can occur within oneself or between individuals, groups, or nations. Conflict comes from wanting something -- from more land to more love -- and finding obstacles in the way of achieving that desire.

And conflict is not, of itself, bad. It is the way we solve conflicts that makes the difference. If we approach our conflicts with the flames of rage, destroying the obstacles -- and people -- we perceive in our way, then conflict become destructive not only of others, but ultimately of ourselves and our society. If we find ways to extinguish those flames, to lower the temperatures of our desires, and to negotiate with cool heads, conflict becomes a way to grow, to build society, and move ahead.

In this issue of LawNow, the Feature section examines the role of law in dealing with a variety of different conflicts; the Special Report explores the rule of law in our society and some ways that citizens bring about change in society by acting both within and beyond the rule of law. In this edition of School's In, let's explore how a rule of law might work within the environment of a school or a classroom and how that might provide a cool way to solve conflicts.

The Classroom Constitution

Every group, formal or informal, has its rules, and the groups that are school classes are not exceptions. Some of these rules are inalterable, like the rules about the general outlines of what must be taught and learned that come from the Ministry of Education or the School Board. Some of the rules, however, are unique to particular schools, or to to each classroom -- specific rules about behaviour, for example. While these often are the property of the principal and teachers, they can -- in part at least -- become the property of a classroom (or school) society through a classroom Constitutional Conference.

In Barbara Billingsley's article on the rule of law, she quotes the Supreme Court of Canada's summary of the rule of law as providing "a sense of orderliness, of subjection to known legal rules, and of executive accountability to legal authority." In other words, the rule of law makes it possible for people in Canadian society to feel that their laws are predictable, stable, and orderly. They aren't going to change suddenly, putting us on the wrong side of the law without due process. Our laws are public; we don't have to worry that there are rules or laws we don't know about. And the laws apply to everyone, even those in charge of the country. Stable, well known, and applied to everyone: these three characteristics of laws, and rules, would not be out of place in a classroom. If this is so, perhaps creating a constitution for a classroom can provide a way for students to take ownership of classroom behaviour and conflict resolution.

The Classroom Constitution sets out the goals, rules, and procedures for behaviour in a classroom. It divides powers and duties between teachers and students in the same way that our Canadian Constitution divides powers and duties between Cabinet/Governor General in Council, Legislature, and Judiciary and between federal and provincial governments. It sets out rights, freedoms, and responsibilities for all classroom citizens. It also prescribes procedures for solving conflicts. It makes the laws of classroom behaviour stable, well known, and applicable to everyone.

This may strike some as an impractical option, especially since teachers, in their role of acting in place of parents, are legally liable for what happens in the classroom. However, where this has been tried, students tend to live up to a teacher's best expectations. Indeed, this approach has been used extremely successfully in classrooms composed of students at risk. Such students seem to respond particularly well to a process of being involved in making a basic set of ground rules that remain stable and whose operation is obvious to all.

One important characteristic, however, of successful Classroom Constitutions and conflict resolution programs in general is that the conflict resolution procedures in which students are involved must be directed toward solution-seeking, not toward punishing offenders. According to Ron Wigglesworth, a secondary school teacher with experience of conflict resolution in Canadian and Swiss schools, conflict resolution procedures that move towards punitive resolutions almost invariably end with the student conflict managers being mistrusted by students, teachers, or administration; frustrated with their...