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I must say that the situation on my mind still leaves me feeling kind of vulnerable and insecure and sad with my own decisions in that past situation. At the same time I feel deep gratitude that after several months of dealing with the process, I was able to come to a place of peace and empathy with myself and the people involved.  So here it is:

The situation: 2nd grade.  20 children are working on their Math tasks in groups of 4, supporting each other with dealing with the concept. One little group of boys are discussing another topic at the same time. They are talking about “who is better Angela Merkel or Barrack Obama.” They get into a heated argument of comparing “MY father says that Angela Merkel is….and the other one says “MY father says, Obama is… ” I am with another group, helping them with their Math. At some point Michael comes running over to me and says: “Hey, Katrin, Stephen says “he hates Obama.” I said: “Well, you know in politics people have their own, sometimes very strong opinions.”

I am in the middle of the very hectic end of the lesson. I am answering all kinds of kids’ questions before the children all fly out the room, having to run to their next subject. Michael tugs on my sleeve and makes sure he really gets my attention and says “And now Stephen said, he hates Obama and me and Sarah and Christine. And that’s because we’re all black.” And I say:” Let’s talk about it when we’re all together again out on the playground.” 60 minutes later I watch the children on the playground. None of that little group seem troubled. They are all playing together harmoniously and it looks like their having fun. I see no sign of concern about the discussion they had in class. I decide to leave it for right now and come back to it sometime when we have circle time and the whole class sits together and shares whatever is important to them.

However, Michael went home that same day and told his parents exactly what Stephen had said and how I had reacted and obviously thought “that everybody is entitled to their own political opinion”. This lead to a lot of shock and anger on the side of the involved parents. Several emails followed in which one family literally quoted paragraphs of legal documents and questioned whether I was living up to the human rights. There were several meetings with them and me, and the school counsellor, and the principal. I felt totally threatened and “guilty” and desperate. The sad thing was that my principal was trying to support me but he was taking it somewhere where I didn’t really want to go. He was trying to prove me right and them wrong. So it was a real mess. I did have NVC counselling and in the long run was able to turn it around together with the involved parents by looking at all feelings, needs and requests involved and finding ways,  but —WHOW- it took a lot of energy out of me!

Katrin Richter,Berlin,Germany

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