Peace Rose
 Laura and Paola doing Peace Rose. Photo by Saro Deacon
Students share how they create happiness in their school Compiled by helpers Mylie, Daniella, Lindsay, Natalie, Ximena, Faith, Arleny, Jennifer, Andrea and Juliana - 6th and 7th grade students at Minnie Cannon Elementary in Middletown, CA. The Peace Rose is a program that helps little kids work out their problems so they can all be friends and play together and don’t fight. We teach them how to follow the steps when they don’t know. We teach them how to use “I” messages. We learned to work with fellow peace rose friends. We used our natural skills to know how to solve conflicts. “When I was a little kid I came to school here and I know how it feels when you get your feelings hurt. So now I want to help children so they feel better,” says Daniela. Sometimes if they’re quiet and they don’t talk about their feelings they might get bullied. And if they don’t know how to solve their problems someone might start rumors about them. “I came from Mexico and I want to help things be better in United States. A lot of people fight, so you have to listen and think what you can do to help them feel better,” shares Natalie. It can help with your brothers and sisters at home too. You can tell your aunts and uncles about it, and they can tell people and more people will be learning how to work things out with talking instead of fighting. It’s good for little kids so they can grow up in a world without drama and teach their kids so it can go on. If you teach it to someone you know, the whole world can know about it and not have as many problems. A word from the teacher: The Peace Rose is a tool used in Montessori schools to help children resolve conflicts peacefully. It is used like a talking stick to allow students to take turns speaking and listening. It has a calming effect, and children learn to communicate their feelings and come up with solutions. Three years ago, I introduced the Peace Rose to our local elementary school. In this public school setting, each teacher K-3 has a rose in a vase in their classroom, as well as a poster with steps for using the rose. Each day, two sixth grade students are on the playground during the younger children’s recess time to help facilitate problems. The program has worked successfully for three years. The younger students say there are fewer problems and they aspire to be helpers when they reach sixth grade. I hope to see it spread to other schools! ~Saro Deacon More Information: 
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