School Fights

Today I received a phone call at work from the kindergarden teacher that Jumbo was fighting with another kid from his class. Apparentyl, it was over thier water bottles. Although this might sound a silly thing, it can never be ignored. So when I picked up Jumbo from school, in the way home, I asked him how was his day at school and what did he do. Thank God he confessed the fight and talked about it with me!

I made him understand that fighting is bad and will never solve things. So in the end, Jumbo was sorry about fighting with his classmate. It went something like this...

I asked him, "What do you think should be the right thing to do, Jumbo?"

After a while of thought, he said, "Umm... talk it out...?"

"Right," I answered. "You should stay calm and relaxed when saying the other person that you don't llike what he or she is doing to you. What else should you say?"

"Please stop?"

"Yes, but other than that, what else should you say - as a very respectful person?" Watching him from the rear view mirror, I saw he looked puzzled. "You should say, 'I'm sorry if I hurt you in any way. Do you forgive me?" because maybe, just maybe, the other person feels you, unintentionally, hurt him or her. So just in case he or she feels that way you say --"

"'I'm sorry.'"

"Good, you've learned! Now let's review again: what should you do when someone's bothering you?"

"Stay relaxed... talk it out... and say 'I'm sorry'."

"Yes!"

Once we got home, we ate lunch and he started his homework. I am glad he learned how to deal with fights today. I saw how he accommodated this new lesson to his current schemas (concept or framework used to understand and interpret information) of the world.