This paper brings together the experiences of children, teachers, and parents in two very different schools in Jamaica—one primary and one preparatory. The data are taken from two larger qualitative studies. The first, An Exploration of Two Classrooms: Cases in Classroom Management, is a case study of a grade 5 teacher’s classroom management strategies in a government primary school and her interaction with four of her students—selected because they were highly responsive and promised to be information-rich respondents.

This paper targets educators who wish to grapple with the problem of violence and aggression in the classroom. Its focus is geared to helping them to acquire basic skills and knowledge necessary to design and implement effective instructional and classroom management practices which will address the needs of the student in an holistic manner, socially, morally and academically. The pro-social aspects of the students' training must be the subject of considerable attention and the humanistic aspect must be meaningfully dealt with.