Giving Compass' Take:

• In this Getting Smart post, educator Linda Ryden describes what she does as an elementary school "peace teacher," focusing on conflict resolutions for students and social-emotional learning (SEL), with an emphasis on mindfulness.

• As bullying increases, teachers with Ryden's skills are essential. How can we train and recruit more of them? Which programs have proven to be most effective?

• Here's more about SEL and the future of education.

I’m six weeks into my 20th year of teaching, and if there’s one thing I feel even more strongly about today than the day I began, it’s this: teaching our young students mindfulness, brain science and kindness is absolutely critical to helping them develop the skills to solve conflicts peacefully and to face challenges with skillful compassion.

I am fortunate to be the full-time Peace Teacher at Lafayette Elementary, the largest public elementary school in Washington DC. At our school, all of the kids take a weekly Peace Class, based on a mindfulness-based social-emotional learning curriculum that I have developed over the last 15 years.

Initially, I began teaching conflict resolution, creating a curriculum that drew on the work of the best educators in the field. While I loved teaching this work and felt it was important, it didn’t seem to be helping my students when they most needed support.

One day some kids came to me after a particularly heated recess conflict. The kids arrived red-faced and sweaty, still really angry and upset. I asked everyone to go around and share what happened. When they were finished I said, “So why didn’t you use your conflict resolution skills?” They all looked at me like I was crazy. “I was too angry, Ms. Ryden!” “He made me mad and I wanted to punch him!” “I totally forgot everything you taught me — I just wanted to fight.”

Read the full article about what a "peace teacher" does by Linda Ryden at Getting Smart.