Some of these children may eventually grow up to become a threat to people around them. Houston Endowment Inc. The institute works with courts, businesses, schools, families and government to develop effective options for managing conflict. The curriculum, designed for prekindergarten through eighth grade, coincides with state mandated course requirements and includes education techniques for teachers for curbing youth violence. There is a lot of peer mediation in schools today, but our concept goes beyond that. History lessons, for example, will include several tangents on how various historical figures resolved disputes through nonviolent means.
Teachers identify and explain the specific resolution methods employed by the figures.
Also, the students examine instances where violence was used and analyze ways the dispute could have been resolved nonviolently. Trachte-Huber says she hopes this innovative project shows students, through example, that dispute resolution really does work. And conveying this message before they reach high school is all too important, Trachte-Huber says. Several psychological studies conducted in the recent years have further strengthened the argument that people, by their late teens, have already adopted all their major morals and personality traits that will follow them into adulthood. So, we want to teach people from cradle to the grave dispute resolution.