Social dynamics

Today I watched a 4/5 class struggle with resolving a difficult issue - exclusion during play and recess. One student had brought up the issue of exclusion through the notebook that serves as a place to log topics students want to discuss in class meetings. The class gathered in a circle, and using a koosh ball as a talking object, systematically gave everyone the chance to speak on the topic (only a few chose to pass). The class generally fell into two camps - a small group of students, perhaps four or five, who are concerned that exclusion occurs regularly during playtime, and a much larger group that wanted to protect their rights to play with whomever they chose during recess and free time. The conversation, while not a back-and-forth dialogue because of the speak-once mechanism of the meeting structure, still traced an arc of movement; the first group acknowledged and agreed with the view of the second group, but was still able to point out that having to ask to be included, as had been suggested, led to hurt feelings when the answer was "no". Going around the circle once took 15 minutes; they agreed to continue the conversation at a later time. There is no easy answer to this topic, of course, which is why I was so pleased to see them wrestling with the hard answer - to process different perspectives and experiences, and experiment with the modes of their peers.