The Great Middle School Microwave War (and Why the Adults Didn’t End It)

At The Village School in Arlington, VA, it was war.

The 80-student school had one microwave and about 15 middle schoolers who wanted to use it at lunchtime. This provoked, says Aaryn Drapiza, “A lot of yelling and arguing.” 

Drapiza is a “guide.” The Village School, K-12,  is an alternative kind of place where “guides” guide “learners” rather than teachers teaching students. And when a dispute arises there, the kids are expected to figure it out – however long it takes.

Trying not to help.

The Microwave War waged for months, requiring Herculean restraint on the part of the adults who knew they could step in and settle the matter, but deliberately held back.

“It was really beautiful to watch, even in the chaos,” says Bridget Yoko, the school’s head of counseling.

What did she and Drapiza witness?

Ideation and innovation.

 “Some gave up and just decided to bring in cold food,” says Yoko.

Others “would wait and wait and yell at each other about the amount of time each of them were using,” she said.

Some kids actually set the microwave for longer than they needed – even 8 minutes – just to be provocative. This caused some of the kids to miss post-lunch free play. Hence…more yelling.

Loud leadership.

But one special feature of The Village School is the community meetings held three times a week, run by the kids themselves. “In community meeting, the microwave would come up a lot and there’d be a lot of blame around whose problem this was and who was really responsible,. But nobody was willing to take accountability,” says Yoko. At times the voices grew so loud, “I covered my ears.” 

The meetings are run by student leaders elected by their peers. Eventually some of these leaders said, “This isn’t helping. We have to come up with a solution.” And they started taking suggestions and writing them on a board. 

This again grew so loud that the leaders declared they would only heed the kids who raised their hands. It was like the dawn of civilization.

Peace in our time. 

At last the group came up with a solution that just may not shock you. 

They decided to buy another microwave.

How?

Bake sales.

That is what the kids proceeded to do. Over the next few months they sold enough goodies to pay for Microwave #2.

That solved the war (pretty much – there’s still some yelling). But really, it did far more than that.

What we talk about when we talk about microwaves.

“The community meeting is a structure for them to bring problems to solve, and we deliberately take a backseat to let them figure it out,” says Yoko. “The more problems we solve for them, the less practice they get. So even though it’s sometimes annoying – even though we adults all see pretty easy solutions – what benefits them is working through it on their own.” 

What’s more, added Drapiza, there’s a lot to be said for getting used to a little friction in life. Knowing that conflicts will arise and that eventually they can be solved by you and your sometimes annoying friends makes the kids “pretty good at moving on.”

Compare and contrast.

Ending the Microwave War did not end all the other conflicts inevitable at a school that trusts kids to make decisions and priorities. What to replace broken play equipment with? (Big discussion.) How to satisfy the kids who wanted quiet time in the morning versus those who wanted to do group work? (More discussion.)

But with each issue, says Drapiza, the kids were learning how to listen, communicate, come up with a plan, “and actually go through with it.”

When she worked in a more traditional school, Drapiza recalls, “I got in trouble for letting one of my fifth graders use the microwave. I was told ‘Children are not allowed to use it because it could explode.’”

Swapping safetyism for some boisterous debate was a trade-off she was happy to make. 

And besides: The teachers have their own microwave.

Let Grow here: If you’d like your students to become a little better at problem-solving, consider bringing The Let Grow Experience to your school or classroom. Students get real world practice at making things happen and dealing with some bumps along the way. And it’s free! Click here!