Second Graders Get It

One of the best times of my life teaching ( there, I've outed myself) was the semester I taught second grade in an enclosed classroom.  The enclosed classroom part is important-all of that open-concept classroom stuff is bunk.  The ambient noise distracts everyone, including the teacher.    I digress.

Our principal required each teacher to sit down with her class and develop a list of class rules that everyone agreed upon and felt they could follow.  Having taught in other capacities than a regular classroom for several years prior to this, I did some reconnaissance during the early part of the week to see what the other classes were coming up with.  I saw things like "Raise your hand to talk," "Keep your hands and feet to yourself," "Don't use the pencil sharpener if the teacher is talking," etc.

So, my little charges and I sat down to have a chat about rules.  Maurice raised his hand and said, "Don't talk while the teacher's talking."  I agreed, and said, "Yes, that would be disrespecting my right to teach and others' right to learn, wouldn't it?"  The class agreed that was so.  Serena raised her hand and said "Take care of our books and stuff."  I said,  "Yes, we would want to respect our own and others' property."  Ricky raised his hand and said,  "No fighting or cuss words."  "Yes, that would definitely be disrespectful," I responded.  We went on at this for some length, until the class had pretty much run out of rules.

I then reviewed for them all the rules they had come up with, and the one thing that all those rules had in common.  Respect.  I saw several "aha!" faces. ( Teachers live for "aha!" faces).  I then said that our class really only needed one rule and that rule was respect.  So, up on the laminated chart that said "Rules" I put the number one, and next to that I wrote the word respect.  That left a whole lot of blank space that did get some odd looks when visitors happened by.

You know what?  My second graders got it.  If  on the rare occasion they didn't get it, they didn't pitch a fit, they asked about it.  As an example:  I had called the children to the carpet for a group lesson.  One boy didn't come.  He was visibly upset.  Ricky raised his hand and said, "Miss, Tony is disrespecting you.  He didn't come to the carpet when you said to!"  I said, "Ricky, do you think Tony can hear me from his desk?"  He acknowledged that was so.  I asked if he was disturbing others.  He acknowledged that he was not.  I then said,  "Well, if he's not disrespecting my teaching, or anybody else's learning, including his own, shouldn't I respect his need for a little time to get himself together?  He'll come over when he's ready."  Incident solved.

So here's my question:  if second graders can get it, why can't we?