It provides an alternative to violent or hurtful behavior during a conflict and encourages students to talk, listen, and arrive at mutual agreements when conflicts do occur. Conflict is a part of life. We wouldn't want to eliminate it, but we are urgently looking for ways to end the violence that causes so much unnecessary pain and suffering. Conflict resolution helps children deal with peer pressure and to be able to practice this decision-making process daily. We are demonstrating to children that they can have power over their lives.
Students deal with conflicts at home and on the streets among their friends.
Teaching them assertive ways to deal with anger and peer pressure on an ongoing basis is the focus of the peer mediation program. The mediator's role is to hear both sides of the dispute and to overcome emotions that may block a settlement. Mediators do not try to determine wrong or right. They only help the disputants reach a settlement that will work for both parties involved. Children are becoming agents of social change, not social control.