The Poopie Head Faction

I've always trusted preschoolers to make their own rules, or rather agreements, for the classroom. If you're interested in how this happens, here's a link.I like this ongoing process of making agreements through consensus for many reasons, but not because it necessarily 'works' better than the typical method of adults imposing and enforcing rules. Just as our adult rules and laws are no guarantee that everyone obeys them all the time, our agreements are likewise no guarantee that everyone will abide by them all the time. These agreements are, as I see it, a kind of statement of intent: this is how we want to live together.Agreements as we do it don't include the cudgel of punishment. The consequence of not abiding by an agreement is that someone -- usually an adult, but often another child -- will remind you. "I want to remind you, we all agreed, 'No hitting.'" Or maybe, "I want to remind you that you agreed, 'No hitting.'" Sometimes a child will need to be reminded more than once,…