Conflict Resolution For A Stronger Future by Charlotte

Conflict Resolution For A Stronger Future by Charlotte - January 2023 Scholarship Essay

I think conflict resolution should be a required course starting at the junior high school level and continuing throughout college. I say this as someone who spent the greater part of her teens and twenties struggling to understand how to attain understanding and move forward with individuals when there were perceived conflicts or differences in opinion. When I look back at that time, what escaped me was the ability to understand and communicate my needs. The lack of these tools resulted in me being “a doormat,” or saying yes when I really wanted to say no. Conflict resolution helps us from the smallest of moments in our day to the most salient; how to return a purchased product that doesn’t work but the manager doesn’t want to honor the posted return policy or the co-worker who takes the shifts you were promised to result in being stuck working at a time that negatively impacts your school schedule.

Conflict resolution helps us not only weed out the problem at hand but to develop self-confidence and self-esteem in recognizing our opinion is important and should be shared. It teaches the individual to believe in their own value, something that we can all use, but even more so when we’re in junior high. If this class was taught in junior high, it would help strengthen the confidence of students and prepare them for a world that will make decisions for them if they don’t step forward and share their voice. The class could help young girls and boys understand that disagreeing is okay, and that most often there is an answer that can work for both parties. Through the process of discussion, we learn what we have in common as well as how we differ, but it is the commonality that is most important to nurture. This feels especially important today as our society becomes more and more divided; we have lost our ability to disagree and still talk to the “other side.” We no longer extend a handout and ask to hear what is important to the other person in an effort to find a place of commonality. How do we move forward as a society if we cannot stand the values of those we see as different than ourselves, so much so we can’t even discuss these differences with them? Conflict resolution at an early age would help develop this skill and create awareness. We would be better equipped to manage all of Life’s moments where disagreement and differences of opinion creep up, which frankly, is just about everywhere. There is a great quote by Dorothy Thomas that illuminates this: “Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.” By providing young adults with the tools to manage conflict we can encourage acceptance and diversity.