Most of us have learned, by the time that we are adults, that anger is a part of our lives, but a part that must be carefully controlled. We have learned through experiences, often painful, that anger can be one of the most destructive of all emotions, leading to hard feelings, a sense of loss of self control, damaged and broken relationships and even physical violence. We have also learned that sometimes anger is actually a good thing, for it can be one of the most important motivations for social change. A little anger can move people from the back of the bus. Anger is a natural part of the human emotional framework, but we each have had to learn to use it constructively and above all to control it. One important way in which anger and the violence it so often engenders - along with a wide range of other disruptive and potentially harmful behaviors - can be reduced in the school environment is to provide students with the skills to address their concerns in peaceful and productive means. Mediation is one of the ways in which such skills can be provided (Besley 83).
While adults can use anger to socially useful ends, and check their anger when it can serve no useful purpose, most children have not yet learned to do so. This is one of the reasons that the nation's schools are all too often the sites of lethal violence. And even when schools avoid the most terrible forms of violence - with disaffected students roaming the halls with automatic weapons - they are often the sites of (relatively) petty physical and psychological violence.
Because of the potential for harm that anger and violence impulses can produce, schools have an obligation to teach their students how to control their feelings. One of the most effective ways in which to do this is to establish a formal mediation program with the goal of creating a more peaceful - and so more academically productive - atmosphere in each school. Handling anger is a skill not unlike a...