“NonViolent Communication is, in my opinion, a tool that is as essential to learning as the pencil we put in the child’s hand so he can learn to write. Essential if we want our youth to develop their social abilities and our world to be a better place to live.”
Principal, Sutton School

“I now have a deeper connection with co-workers and a better understanding of how we each see things differently. I’m leaving feeling positive and grateful for the experience.”
Teacher, Sutton School

"My challenging class is my seventh grade, particularly one student. My biggest question is what is it that he/they need. I went into work on Monday and was able to interact with him and the rest of his classmates from a place of calm and a place of caring. I used observation, feelings, needs, and requests. The class responded in an amazingly cooperative way. Today one of the students in the class came to me after school and asked me if I would listen to a poem that he had written. I was surprised but agreed. He sat down and read me a three page rap that he had written to me telling me about who he was. It was heart wrenching to hear, but his message was loud and clear: "Don't judge me for the way I look or how I act sometime. There is so much going on inside of me that no one can see or know." I was almost speechless when he finished. What he said was so HUGE. I went for the feeling, "I feel honored that you shared this with me." From there we talked some. I'm quite worried about him, but at least a door has been opened. I feel that my compassionate way of communicating with his class in the past two days opened that door. I'm humbled by this experience."
Theresa, teacher, 5th grade

"I’ve been using some of the empathetic response strategies I was reading a little about (e.g., "I'm guessing that you're feeling pretty upset right now" ... "Would you like to find a time when we could talk about what happened, later?"), rather than my traditional directives (e.g., "I need you to begin working on the assignment in the next few minutes, or I'll have you work on it with me during recess"). I'm happy to report that, on several occasions, that simple strategy of reflecting back in words what I'm seeing/interpreting from a child's body language seems to free her up to move on, out of a stuck place, and to be able to talk, or simply to re-engage in the class activity. Aha!"
Dell, teacher, 4th grade

"Another interesting effect of practicing this is it slows my reaction/response time down because I'm working to figure out exactly what I'm feeling, what need isn't being met, and what my request it. That makes me less likely to respond impulsively out of some angry emotional place. Great, huh?"
Revell, teacher, middle school