Center for Respectful Schools

Vision: The Vermont Peace Academy (VPA) works in schools to build a congenial and caring learning community, unlocking an excitement and eagerness to learn. VPA teaches 3rd-12th grade students, teachers, administrators, and parents, fundamental life-long interpersonal skills – nonviolent communication, facilitative team building and cross-cultural appreciation.

Programs are tailored to the current issues faced by each school and supervisory union. The emphasis is on helping the youth, and their adult support network, embrace a greater sense of ownership in their school. Student led projects are created to improve the school climate for learning. VPA encourages students to become compassionate and thoughtful individuals who are capable community leaders. Such people will build a culture of peace in the world.

The Need: School administrators, teachers and parents are increasingly distressed by discontent, intolerance to diversity, and conflict in schools. Levels of competition have become destructive. Bullying and harassment are prevalent. Disciplinary actions typically instituted by schools may have the effect of adding to these problems. There is growing evidence that an emotionally stressful school environment is an obstacle to learning. Key members of the school community feel disconnected, disengaged and unable to create positive change.

And, Vermont rural schools, funded by low tax bases, need assistance if they are to offer specialized programming for social and emotional growth, positive leadership and violence prevention.

A 2003 study by the National Center for Children in Poverty, on the effectiveness of school violence prevention programs, concluded that

1.)  building interpersonal skills and teaching nonviolent conflict resolution are associated with positive improvement in academic achievement, and

2.)  “school-based intervention with a common curriculum can be implemented in a sensitive and effective manner that benefits children from a diverse range of backgrounds.”

How: VPA facilitates and sponsors The Center's collective of contract educators. These educators have expertise in teaching social and emotional intelligence. Our curricula emphasize direct experiential learning, self-discovery, mentoring and community service. Youth are taught basic skills and adults are taught how to facilitate youth voice and engagement. The methods utilized are well tested within the peaceful schools, collaborative learning and conflict resolution educational movements.

The Center for Respectful Schools brings together diverse perspectives in a school to cultivate its vitality as a learning community. VPA works with the supervisory union level to tailor a program which includes all schools in district. The program offers semester long residencies, convening volunteer students and adults of different ages, from different schools. VPA programs are most widely used in the middle grades, 6th-8th and their adult community.

Once new skills are learned, they are put in action during student led conferences. Student leaders are identified and trained, then facilitate fellow students and adults to create an action plan to solve an issue in their own school – perhaps bullying, drug use, school spirit, or a need for new curricula. VPA continues to work with the school to carry out the action plan, often into the next school year.

1 J. Lawrence Aber et. al., Dec. 2003, Changing Children's Trajectories of Development, Two Year Evidence for the Effectiveness of a School-Based Approach to Violence Prevention , National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health.

VPA also works with the school(s) to host a culminating educational event called “Diversity Day.” VPA brings together local, regional and state partners (including Cultural Links, the Vermont Folklife Center, the Emily Post Foundation, and local and foreign cultural associations), to celebrate cultural history and customs. In preparation, students learn cultural protocols and study the countries of people invited. During Diversity Day, several individuals representing various cultural groups are welcomed and interviewed. Cultural art and performances are shown. All is filmed on video by the students. Local media are invited to report the event's success to the community.

Program Components:

Pathways to Friendship, by Dr. Ken Hood, is the curriculum taught during a school residency of four to seven workshops. A school wide or regional celebratory conference culminates the program. For some schools there is also a kick-off conference to introduce the goals of the program.

Students in Action is the follow-up program. Students facilitate creation of an action plan for positive change in the school. Gaining support from entire school community, students work with the adult community to implement the plan.

School Violence Prevention. In collaboration with the Center for Civic Education, VPA is combining the Students in Action program with Project Citizen's curriculum to teach civic responsibility and authority. The program ends with an event at the Vermont State House featuring student presentations.

Teachers Building Peaceful Learning Communities. VPA educators train teachers to incorporate the Pathways to Friendship and School Violence Prevention curricula into their lesson plans. VPA is working to gain professional credits for teachers through our Center for Peace Studies.

Speaking Peace Workshop. VPA educators offer workshops to all members of a school community based upon Nonviolent Communication as developed by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg. This workshop is especially accessible to parents.

International Day of Peace and Intercultural Network. VPA escorts students and teachers to attend the International Day of Peace celebration at the United Nations. In addition, VPA partners with organizations like Cultural Links, the Vermont Folklife Center , and immigrant/expatriate associations to sponsor multicultural educational events in schools, ex. Diversity Day.

Dr. Ken Hood developed the curriculum under VPA's sponsorship. The residency program, formerly called VPA 2, was developed in collaboration with the Vermont Peace Academy and the Vermont Principals' Association. This collaboration formed in response to the call of the Vermont legislature's Bullying and Harassment bills of 2004 (Act 91-Harassment in Schools and Act 117 – Bullying Prevention Policies).

September 21 was established as the International Day of Peace in 1981 by a United Nations resolution, as a day of global ceasefire. September 21 was established as the International Day of Peace in 1981 by a United Nations resolution, as a day of global ceasefire.

Results: In 2007, VPA became the Vermont State Coordinator for the Center for Civic Education's School Violence Prevention Program. Also in 2007, VPA sponsored Dr. Ken Hood's publication of the “Pathways to Friendship” curriculum, used exclusively for VPA programs. This year, VPA is sponsoring the first edition of Wendy Webber's "A Training Manual on "Creating a Compassionate Climate in the Learning Community" based on the model and practice of Nonviolent Communication".

In 2007, VPA sponsored a program evaluation by external consultants. During interviews conducted with students, the evaluators found “examples of complex understandings of leadership and social systems.” They concluded, “We are impressed with both the level of understanding, complexity of the understanding, and students' ability to articulate these distinctions.”

The paraprofessional quoted above has worked in her school system for 20 years. Below is another excerpt from her February 2008 letter enumerating many successes of VPA's school program at her school.

“I worked in this classroom last year and witnessed growth in leadership in students that attended conferences. Presently these students are quiet leaders that are able to lead without a dialog and step in whenever a situation presents itself in the course of the day."

“These leaders are respected by their peers who seek out their opinion and assistance. They give up their free time at recess to organize presentations. They independently sought out permission and faculty to supervise whatever they needed to prepare. They competently analyze a situation, provide assistance if needed because of the skills they have been taught.”