Some days the people you have to be around get on your nerves or upset you. What to do? Given that the adult world hardly provides the best models at times, it can be hard for our teenagers to know what to do when these times come up.
Making things worse through insults or teasing is not an option. Nor, I tell the students, is the opposite behavior practical. As an example I told them the story of a school I worked in long ago, where there had been a week of many upsets among students. The principal called a whole school assembly, and expressed her disappointment that so many students were not getting along. In conclusion she asked the whole school, staff and students, to stand up. We all did, with some curiosity. "Right," she said, "everyone hold hands with the person either side of you."
My students cringed at the thought of having to do such a thing, as I had cringed. So I don't ask them to do that.
There is a middle ground, one that is civil, or neutral, and when we do have a conflict, that is where I tell them to go.
