At lunchtime, the students in Roberts s class go to the lunchroom, pick up their lunches, and then return to eat in the classroom along with their teacher and assistant. Roberts believes that the children benefit from this consistent adult presence through the school day. For example, two students were in conflict about the use of one of the computers. One went to Roberts and complained, whereupon he talked with both students to resolve the problem. When one of the two students was in another conflict regarding a computer later in the day, she made use of the same process for resolving the problem that she had learned from Roberts during the initial conflict.
Students also learn personal hygiene practices in Roberts s class.
They all wash their hands in the classroom before lunch, and when lunch is over, they brush their teeth with toothbrushes Roberts has given them. Many of the students are reading one or two years ahead of their actual grade level, and King speaks with special pride of one class of Shidler fifth graders, who are reading high school-level materials and exhibiting high comprehension scores. Student performance data reveal improvements in language arts and mathematics as well as reading. King says it is difficult to pinpoint the most important causative factor for the academic progress and behavioral improvements of Shidler s students. In a debriefing session, King and fourth grade teacher John Roberts acknowledged that there is still a contingent of teachers that has not taken ownership of the Collins approach to developing reading skills and other methods adopted by Shidler.