The teachers at NCCL take very seriously their commitment to be positive role models for children. We believe that children learn to be thoughtful and responsible toward themselves and others by being cared for by us in a thoughtful and responsible manner. Because we hope to help our students to grow in initiative and self-confidence, we emphasize praise and appreciation for positive behavior and achievement rather than negative criticism and comparisons. However, inappropriate or hurtful behavior is stopped and a child may be separated from the group or denied privileges for a time if the behavior continues. Whenever possible we allow children to experience and learn from the normal consequences of their behavior. In the inevitable conflicts that arise from group living, we try to recognize opportunities for children to learn to listen to other points of view, to state clearly their own feelings and perspective, and to try to arrive at mutually agreeable solutions. By and large, we feel that behavior that occurs at school should be dealt with at school. We involve parents only in unusual cases when we feel that the behavior is so out of bounds or pervasive that both home and school need to be mobilized to help the child bring it under control.