Modeling

It's not a normal day at my school unless I have interrupted a scuffle of some sort before the bell rings. These are usually of the verbal variety. Two kids squaring off in some corner of the playground, asserting some form of dominance.
"Mister Caven!" The cry goes out, "There's gonna be a fight!"
And the reality is more along the lines that someone has shown up without breakfast or having stayed up far too late watching wrestling the night before. Managing the sometimes vicious mood swings in kids aged four to twelve is a challenge, but most of them respond quickly to reminders of the things their parents and teachers have been reminding them for the past few months. Or years. So once equilibrium has been reached with some mediation, usually "I messages" that replace the posturing, we all go back to being on the playground for its stated purpose: playing.
There is an expectation that once things have been smoothed out, the rest of the day, week, month, year can proceed without further threats from the kids or from the adults about going home early or calling mom. And no one would believe me without some sort of scientific documentation that the level of stress on these matters has increased since last November. I believe that my job has been made more challenging since the election of "President" Trump. The braggadocio and chest thumping that pours in a steady stream out of the White House from the number of spectators at his inaugural to his assertion that he "hopes" Hillary will run again in 2020 cannot help but set a tone for the rest of young America to emulate.
Unless we take the time to actively work against that tide. Managing with fear and threats is what children see the leader of the free world doing. Why wouldn't it work for them? I don't believe for a second that this is an active or overt choice on the part of my young charges. They are quite a few steps down the stress ladder from the Twitterstorm that seems to run our country presently. Currently, one of the harshest put-downs at our school is calling someone "Donald Trump." It makes some of our kids cry. It makes some of them want to fight. And I would love to make some sort of scientific study of this phenomena, but right now I can't.
I'm needed out on the yard.