Class Meeting Solutions

A story from Suzanne Smitha, school psychologist, Sharon School, Charlotte, North Carolina

A child in the first grade had terrible body odor. Some children made disparaging remarks about how he smelled. Those who sat near him would occasionally ask the teacher whether they could move away because he smelled so bad.

Then one day a child put the problem on the class-meeting agenda. The teacher was concerned about the boy's feelings and hesitated to let the class discuss the problem with him there. Rather than singling him out, she posed a question to the class, asking them why someone might come to school some days not smelling his or her best. The children offered many suggestions: maybe the washing machine broke and the family couldn't wash their clothes; maybe a child slept with a younger brother or sister who had an accident in the bed that night; maybe the parents had to work late and didn't have a chance to wash the clothes.

The teacher then asked how someone might feel coming to school without being clean. The children used a variety of words to describe their possible feelings. "What might a student do in such circumstances?" the teacher asked. Many helpful ideas emerged. One boy offered to let a child come to his house anytime to shower. The teacher informed the class that there was a shower at the school and arrangements could be made for anyone to use it. Clean clothes were also available from the school.

Opening this sensitive issue up with this age group made it a problem that could happen to anyone and that had practical solutions. Children were less inclined to complain about body odor after that, and the child with the problem occasionally asked to use the shower at school.

Inspirational Story

Bob Huppe, fourth-grade teacher, Shorewood Elementary School, Seattle, Washington

Two boys in a class were frequently putting one another down. The problem began to escalate into other issues between them. At that point, the boys brought the topic of put-downs to their teacher for a problem-solving session.

At the teacher's suggestion, the boys agreed to keep a record of this problem for a period of time. Together they developed a chart with four categories for data collection. The first column read "Win-Win." To have a check mark in this column, the comment (made by either boy) had to be positive-a nice thing to say and to hear. The next column was headed "Win-Lose." This was for a put-down that one child enjoyed giving but that was at the other child's expense. The third column was "Lose-Lose." This was for any time both boys got in trouble for and felt badly about a put-down. The final column was "Lose-Win." The flip side of the second column, this was for the child who had been on the receiving end of the hurtful put-down. Another feature of this system was that, even though each boy kept a chart, they had to agree on where they would place each mark.

They followed this plan for a week and almost always agreed about where the marks should go. Each boy became aware of how often he was using put-downs. At the end of the week, the boys checked back in with the teacher. He asked them what they had learned by gathering the data. As they discussed their observations, both boys noted that they preferred win-win remarks to any other kind. They also discovered that they were now exchanging fewer put-downs. However, one of the boys clearly felt more disparaged and much worse about the put-downs than the other boy. This was an important realization for both of them.

After becoming more aware of their own behavior and its consequences, these two students chose to stop using put-downs. In fact, they became friends, and for the rest of the year they frequently gave each other compliments in class meetings.