"Show a child a book and he may read it.... Give a child some love and he will appreciate it."
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A Teacher with Chicken Feet! by Darlene Small Trafford Publishing
book review by Cynthia Collins
This book is a guide for teachers to help them recognize conflict among their students and to resolve it appropriately. It looks at various situations within the student's home and friends. Some external factors would be a lack of parenting or lack of discipline within the home, causing the student to experience a lack of communication and lack of respect from others. Over time, students withdraw socially or may become violent as a way of expressing their anger and frustration. Ms. Small encourages students to calm down; stop and think, instead of lashing out. The adage of counting to ten is a good rule of thumb.
Small is particularly focused on drugs and gun violence. Conflict escalates to violence, and if guns are present, all too often results in shootings. Regardless of whether the shootings take place on the job, in the home, or at school, gun violence is not the way to resolve disagreements.
Small claims that "she is not looking for a bestseller," but her anti-violence stance and common sense messages of mutual human respect are vital. The pages of the book are dark blue gray background with black text and most of the sentences begin with the first letter in boldface, which may prove difficult to read. Still, her knowledge of conflict resolution is apparent. She has attended and been the presenter of this subject at teacher workshops.