Restorative Classroom Reflective Report

Developing and honing a restorative worldview in the past few months has been very important for me. When reflecting on everything I’ve learned, and applying it to some of my past experiences, it became abundantly clear just how significant this perspective has been in shaping my understanding of fairness and justice. There is one event in particular I would like to share in this reflection that I believe has direct application to this class. It occurred long ago, but I still contemplate it frequently. Reflecting on this event using a restorative framework taught me more about myself, and it also taught me about the importance of forgiveness.
I believe it was the summer after I had finished grade 2 when I received some earth-shattering information. …show more content…
I gave him a bit of a backdrop, telling him that I had only recently found out what happened. It’s very interesting for me to read over the email once again, all this time later; I had known David rather well, having been to his house a number of times as a kid, and I can remember really looking up to him. At the time, I didn’t know if my message would really have an impact on him, or if he would even read it for that matter, but I felt it was important for me to do whatever I could to mend this relationship with him. While I certainly wasn’t an expert on restorative justice at that point, I recognized the importance of interpersonal relationships and their role in achieving justice. I was fortunate enough to receive a thorough reply from David, where he answered the questions I had asked and told me a little bit more about his journey. I felt a lot better having heard from him directly. Had I not gotten in touch with David, this might have been a burden on me for a long time. After having developed my knowledge of restorative justice in the past few months, I can see now, better than ever before, how and why it was so important for me to reconcile my relationship with David, even after so many years had passed.
Approaching this situation today, having the tools that this class has equipped me with, I realized just how applicable restorative justice could have been in David’s case, through a number of facets; unfortunately, very few restorative approaches were explored in this situation, which made David’s recovery an even more difficult and painful experience. It made me consider the many areas in which restorative practices could have been applied throughout David’s