Stanton School

Being a principal of a school in an impoverished area, where drugs and abuses are part of every day life, must require a lot of strength. Principal Berny committed a lot of her time and compassion to the children attending the Stanton School. She arrived at school around 6 in the morning on weekdays and even on weekends to work. What impressed me was that she was working on making birthday cards for the students.

One of the phrases which she used a couple of times during the film was "taking responsibility for your own actions." This was when two boys were invited to the principal's office and another time was during a lecture in a fourth grade classroom about a conflict in the lunch room. I am not sure what she means by "taking responsibility." In the first scene, at first she was listening to the two boys and was clarifying what happened. Then the scene is cut off and in the next scene, a boy (victim in the conflict) was crying and Ms Berny talks about what he should have done and that he and the other boy needs to take responsibility for their own actions. By responsibility, did she mean that the boys needed to talk to the teachers as soon as the conflict broke out, that they should find ways to resolve the conflict themselves, or both?

Ms Berny interacts with students with warmth but at the same time demands from the students what needs to be done. When thinking about what kind of interaction best suits children's development, cultural and social context has to be examined. In the community like Stanton, I think teachers, as well as parents, needs to be controlling the students in order to protect them from harm. On the other hand, in a community where there are less harm, I think parents and teachers can be less controlling of the children. In both context, what is important is that the care and compassion that adults have towards the children is expressed in some way.