Causes and Avoidance of Conflicts
CONFLICT AVOIDANCE
What is conflict? The dictionary says that it is 1competitive or opposing action of incompatibles; 2to show antagonism of irreconcilability. In other words it’s usually a fight between two people who don’t get along for one reason or another.
Causes of conflict: I will speak about what I have experienced. • My first conflict was with someone who used to be a friend. We have known each other a few years. We used to hang out in the halls at school together with a group of other friends and clown on each other and clown on other people who passed by. This somewhat made people think that we were a “bad group of kids”. We said they also might think that because we were mostly a minority group (Black and Hispanic with one or two white friends with us). None of us were doing much work or any sports in school. I always played sports throughout grade school but because of my grades I wasn’t eligible so I guess I was bored. My mom started telling me to get my grades up so that I could play again because she knew that I needed something to keep me focused on school. So with support from my principle and the football coaches I got my grades up and I became eligible. That was the best feeling; being able to play again. I still kept my friends but it started to get harder to keep up with them, school, football, and then track. My coaches, my principle and my mom told me that I needed to break away from that group and concentrate on my school work if I wanted to keep playing sports. I admit that when I did break away and start hanging out with different guys (football players and track team) I saw that we had more in common. Breaking away started tension with my first group of friends and me. They started saying that I thought that I was too good to hang out with them anymore. One of their moms told me that I was not “all that”. I even tried to explain to them but that didn’t do any good. All through the school year the tension got
What is conflict? The dictionary says that it is 1competitive or opposing action of incompatibles; 2to show antagonism of irreconcilability. In other words it’s usually a fight between two people who don’t get along for one reason or another.
Causes of conflict: I will speak about what I have experienced. • My first conflict was with someone who used to be a friend. We have known each other a few years. We used to hang out in the halls at school together with a group of other friends and clown on each other and clown on other people who passed by. This somewhat made people think that we were a “bad group of kids”. We said they also might think that because we were mostly a minority group (Black and Hispanic with one or two white friends with us). None of us were doing much work or any sports in school. I always played sports throughout grade school but because of my grades I wasn’t eligible so I guess I was bored. My mom started telling me to get my grades up so that I could play again because she knew that I needed something to keep me focused on school. So with support from my principle and the football coaches I got my grades up and I became eligible. That was the best feeling; being able to play again. I still kept my friends but it started to get harder to keep up with them, school, football, and then track. My coaches, my principle and my mom told me that I needed to break away from that group and concentrate on my school work if I wanted to keep playing sports. I admit that when I did break away and start hanging out with different guys (football players and track team) I saw that we had more in common. Breaking away started tension with my first group of friends and me. They started saying that I thought that I was too good to hang out with them anymore. One of their moms told me that I was not “all that”. I even tried to explain to them but that didn’t do any good. All through the school year the tension got