Looking forward to the future

This past week has been a very productive one. The fifth graders I work with in Mrs. M’s class have been on fire and our latest topic was on bullying and I was pleased they reacted was in a very mature and respectful manner. I first asked if any of them have been the bully and vise versa and everyone in the class has been the victim and the bully. I wanted them to share their past experiences in order for them to get a better understanding of how bullying comes in many shapes and forms. Macy, who is a very active participant in discussions, had a story where her friend would make up excuses to bully her. She stated, "just because they're your friends doesn't mean they can't bully you in a way to." And she was right; the whole class agreed and more examples came to surface and at first their understanding on what a bully was not what they originally thought. They just had to think about it and once they did, they realized that they were being the bully and the victim. I think this realization will go a long way in getting them to stop bullying, but only time can tell if what I did helped. 

The first graders, on the other hand, were good the first 20 minutes, but I guess the heat got to them and then problems started to occur. Besides that the discussion went very well and the starting question was "what makes a good friend?" They said things like truthful, honest, and protecting. Peter made a very good point that even if a friend hurts your feelings, you can always ask if they can have a second chance. I replied asking, "what if they did something  really bad would you still give them a second chance?" Of course, some said yes and no, but the reasons behind them got me thinking. Isaiah said that if it was his best friend then he would give him a second chance, but if it was someone like a newish friend he wouldn't think twice about it. And then I asked the class a question which was "if someone who hurt you is back in your life how do you know you can fully trust them?"

I'm most looking forward to the discussions in the future with Maunawili and being an alumni means so much being able to give back to school in a way that will help them later on in their life. The teachers are more than willing to understand the way we do things and I can't wait to experience P4C with the Menehunes.