One of the interesting things about working with young children is that every now and then, they will choose to drop what they have learned and experiment with their old ways. Over the last couple of weeks, the whole class wordlessly decided to do this with sharing materials and cooperating in play. Our class went from being a relatively harmonious place to a room full of sectioned-off spaces where some children were permitted and others were not. As you can imagine, this is pretty frustrating as a teacher and not much fun as a student.

How do we work with problems like this?

Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools in our kits. At meeting on Tuesday, which was a particularly exasperating day, I pulled out a small set of dolls and a pile of tiny bricks and told a story about three hypothetical children. Two of them had built a lovely castle and a third child approached and wanted to come in. "No, you can't! We built it!" was the response the other two gave. As I told the story, the group was completely silent and still. All eyes were fixed on the dolls and bricks. When I asked them what they thought the children should do to solve the problem, eager hands shot up into the air. Universally, they agreed that the children should share, and that if they fought, bad things might happen -- the kids might end up crying and the bricks could get broken. 

Wednesday was also a difficult day. During meeting, I finished the story. The dolls took the Brillantes' advice, shared and worked together, and ended up building something fantastic.

On Thursday, we saw a dramatic shift in behavior. The class spent a lot of time playing at the blue blocks. In groups, the Brillantes built splendid structures. They worked together, shared materials, helped each other and had a fantastic time visiting each other's houses. As Lucille put it, "I built a cozy house and I invited some friends in." When she said this, I asked if having more people in the house made it cozier. "Yeah! We made it warm together, and it was cold outside."

We could just use our teacher authority to make the kids share, but then they would be doing this because we told them to. Using gentler tactics means that they end up sharing because they feel it's the right thing to do and it makes being together more enjoyable.