The lie isn’t that childhood trauma doesn’t exist. Of course it does.
Some of our students have been abused and neglected. Others have witnessed violence, criminality, drug use, and indescribable family strife.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, “Adverse childhood experiences can have long-term impacts on health, opportunity and well-being.”
You know all this, especially if you work in a public school.
The whole idea of social-emotional learning (SEL) is to mitigate these possible effects. Same with restorative justice practices, community circles, and incorporating SEL into everyday lessons.
I believe advocates of SEL have their heart in the right place.
They care for kids. They’ve also been extremely persuasive and have had a huge (and growing) impact on education, especially since the pandemic—which some believe was a traumatic event for every child.
They want more counselors, social workers, and paraprofessionals to pull students out of class for emotional check-ins, mental-health walks, and small-group therapy. They’ve also been behind the push for removing assignment deadlines and allowing more and more accommodations.
It’s become de rigueur to assume that every student has experienced trauma.
This is why standards are being lowered, rules dropped or ignored, and consequences diminished and removed altogether. It’s why a student can throw a chair across the room and be back in your classroom the next day. They’ve had trauma, you see. It’s not their fault.
You know where I’m going with this.
Maybe all the counseling referrals, SEL lessons, appeasements, and the like are actually hurting kids rather than helping them. Maybe it’s causing the increase in misbehavior by telling kids not-so-subtly that there is something wrong with them.
They can’t control themselves. They can’t pay attention. They can’t follow rules or make friends or stay off their phones. They can’t stop acting immaturely or being offended by the slightest offense.
They’ve been through too much and thus need help and a lighter load.
They need mental breaks. They need more chances. They need to listen to their thumping music or fidget with a toy or leave the classroom for a breather.
They need eggshells scattered in a wide orbit around them, bevies of “most improved” certificates, and excuse after excuse for why it isn’t their fault for disrupting the learning of others, terrorizing the school, and making teachers miserable.
Yes, the SEL advocates and their coterie, which overwhelmingly fill our schools and dominate every district across the oceans and plains, presumably mean well.
But they’re dead wrong. What students need—especially those who’ve experienced actual trauma—is the message that they can overcome.
They need to be given the message through high standards and expectations that there are no acceptable excuses. Divorce and crime and the stuff you’ve seen and experienced sucks. It really does. Many of us have been there too.
But you can do it.
No more wallowing one minute and making fun of others the next. No more being late and unaccountable. No more being given infinite pardons and reprieves for poor behavior and work habits.
Of course, if there is a student who has just experienced real trauma, then we should provide support and reassurance that we care. Even still, the best thing you can do for them, short and long term, is provide structure, consistency, and purpose.
Kids are resilient if only you allow them to be.
The idea that if you hold today’s students accountable or lay pressing responsibility on their shoulders they’re going to melt into a puddle of their own tears is hogwash. Not doing so based on good intentions is why we are where we are.
My advice: Throw out SEL and all of its manifestations. Replace it with better subject-matter teaching, more time on task, higher expectations, weighty responsibility, and the demand for impeccable behavior.
No exceptions. No excuses. No more telling students that they can’t because they’re damaged goods. No more implying through pull-outs, class surveys, and rushing to their side that they’re weak-minded, broken, and have no agency.
The transformative power of purpose, discipline, and genuine accomplishment is what all students need.
Not only is this the best solution for true adverse childhood experiences, but it removes the far greater trauma of low expectations.
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I agree with many of the ideas in this article. Interestingly, many aspects of teaching championed by Smart Classroom Management ARE trauma-informed: consistent daily routines and procedures, explicitly taught expectations, and being a consistently pleasant teacher who never yells, uses sarcasm, or singles out students.
I also think that small adjustments on my part do not impede my mission for high expectations for everyone. Things like providing noise-canceling headphones for certain students during fire drills, using light covers on harsh florescent lights (as much for me as the kids!), and teaching students they may ask for a water break if they need a quick burst of movement or a chance to calm down (a strategy I use as an adult).
I don’t think being trauma-informed and subscribing to your approach are contradictory as long as high expectations and student learning are at the forefront.
I disagree with the headphones for fire drills because if it was an actual fire is it more important to get the headphones or get out of the building? It’s ok for children to experience discomfort and inconvenience especially in a potentially harmful situation. Let’s instill grit along side empathy.
“It’s ok for children to experience discomfort and inconvenience especially in a potentially harmful situation.” I agree. Also, in the case of a true emergency, students need to be able to hear instructions; headphones may hinder that depending on the situation.
Agree with and appreciate your comment!
Exactly, and definitely 💯%+ to “high expectations and student learning!”
👌👍🙌
Indeed this is a very profound subject which can make or break students depending on how the matter was addressed. In most cases, teachers have been found wanting especially on how to mitigate on these cases. Some don’t have courage to deal with these matters as most them are emotional wrecks and damaged goods themselves. Some tend to personalize this rather than offer professional help and if not refer these cases to the experts. Most teachers lack the know how on how to handle these cases ending up doing more damage /more harm than good. It’s a very serious subject as most learners come from broken homes. It’s indeed very challenging as most learners suffer in silence without help hence they end up being violent themselves, unable to express how they feel inside. Teachers must ask right questions rather being vindictive & authoratitive. If could only understand that the matter has hot nothing to do with themselves. Many learners because of lack of support end up being drop outs, juvenile delinquents, alcoholists, drug addicts, parents at a very young age. Signs are always there, it’s only the one entrusted with the responsibility to nurture, mould them to identify these anomalities.
Disagree. You state: ‘Some don’t have courage to deal with these matters as most them are emotional wrecks and damaged goods themselves.’ Rethink that people who have gone through trama are ‘damaged goods’. We are not, we are survivors, determined to live a life that is not dictated by past trauma.
This is a tricky topic for me both personally and professionally. Personally, I grew up in a nice house, in a nice town, with a nice school system. But what happened behind closed doors after hours inside my house was anything but nice.
The horror always happened at night. The parental management system in place house involved daytime neglect and lack of attention followed by nighttime unpredictability and horror. Over many years, I self-learned hypervigilance. The fear and helplessness I felt at night during those years was intense.
I grew up in an era when trauma-informed teaching strategies were not followed per se, and were not yet named. In contrast to my home life, school offered predictable daily routines. In school, I worked hard, learned and was seen. My teachers celebrated my accomplishments. I enjoyed safe and structured recess where I learned to laugh, play and develop interpersonal skills.
In your post, you wrote this: “My advice: Throw out SEL and all of its manifestations…” However some of Jessica Minehan’s ideas presented in her 2019 article, Trauma-Informed Teaching Strategies, seem to align with your own. (https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/trauma-informed-teaching-strategies) For example, strategy #1 is “Expect Unexpected Responses [… and not take them personally”]. And strategy #4 “Promote Predictability and Consistency” is a common theme in your writing.
Teaching has been my life’s work and joy. I truly believe I was born to teach. By instinct, I decorated my first classroom using minimalism, before even that was a named concept. Each year, I know there are precious students on my roster, who may be experiencing sheer horror outside of school. I owe it to them to offer a safe, quiet, structured environment where they can learn, be noticed for their hard work, and grow.
I hear you. The safest place for students with trauma is a safe, respectful and consistent environment. If said student has this in their classroom environment, they will learn and grow. Gift them these things to give them hope for the future.
The predictable routine of school is necessary and what many of our students love about coming to school are the routines that many of us have in place. I have been teaching for 28 years and there are many students that “live” by that daily schedule that is posted on the board. The routines for our kiddos are comforting and allows them to “breathe” and not worry about what may or may not happen because their home life is so unpredictable and chaotic.
Thank you. I thought I was getting old and going crazy. You need to take this on a PD roadshow.
Totally agree with Loretta!
I echo that! It is a disservice to give students excuses. Yes, there are good reasons students experience trauma, but creating a consistent, safe place to learn is what they need – a place where they can be accepted and succeed. We cannot control what is happening beyond the classroom, but when we consistently model routines and set expectations, they find a way to cope and see the difference. That is a loving teacher.
High expectations and high accountability can and should go hand-in-hand with SEL/Restorative approaches.
Much depends on implementation and taking the view that teachers can be authoritative without being authoritarian.
We can’t just demand impeccable behavior without excuses and expect to get it.
Better subject matter teaching and knowing how to engage students is a huge part of it. But we also have to first create the relationships and the kind of classroom environment that makes kids WANT to behave appropriately because they are highly engaged and invested (both academically and socially), feel valued and connected, and WANT to be in the classroom instead of walking the hallways.
The magic combination, in my opinion, is a balance of high-quality, relevant content, engaging instruction; proactive SEL aimed at deepening relationships and building a positive learning community; and—when misbehavior and conflict do arise—using them as opportunities to teach social expectations, problem-solving skills, and why it matters that we know how to get along with other people and consider our impact on them.
Totally agree with you. I would add that some students have never experienced conflict resolution and do not know how to do it. When students understand emotions and how to control them they can get along with their peers and appreciate the concept and experience of mutual respect. I think SEL is important for this reason and have seen it work for the students in my classroom.
I confirm.
I have worked at both a school of very disturbed children and a school of very healthy and wealthy children…. Ironically, the traumatized student population significantly outperformed the “healthier” students both behaviorally and academically. Why? Because at that school with traumatized students, we held students accountable for their choices, and were required to begin teaching our core subjects exactly at 8:00 am. We had to! These students lives depended on it! There was no such thing as a student “can’t.” When I moved to this current school with a healthier population of students…. I honestly couldn’t believe how many teachers were convinced that some students just “can’t.” I became disliked very quickly because I had evidence that actually not only can these students learn a ton, but they are significantly underperforming. My students had the highest scores and happiest days thanks to everything I learned here at Smart Classroom Management. Parents and students became obsessed with my classroom, begging to let their child learn from me. I even had some families find out where I lived to try and convince me to let their child in my classroom…. Totally crazy. Even my mother-in-law was stopped several times by families desperate to put their child in my classroom. It was like I was some kind of celebrity! Our families and children need high expectations, accountability, and content knowledge brimming with joy! Thank you Michael Linsin for spreading the truth!
Thank you!!
This is so true. I was a school counselor and school psychologist, and all students, especially those from traumatic experiences, need reassurance that they can accomplish tasks and meet expectations life hands them. To merely feel sorry for them is counterproductive to their healing and moving forward. The “eggshell” method is agreeing with them that they are broken and can’t do whatever for themselves and that the world will accommodate their every difficulty. They need to learn constructive ways forward through structure and high expectations, and respect for them that they can do it.
I feel this to my core. All the wishy washy, excuse making is so detrimental to our students. Being a specialist, I am with over 400 students. I see consistently that students do better with clear boundaries, lines drawn in the sand and routines. It makes them feel SAFE. They know where they stand. When they act out and you allow it because you use trauma as an excuse makes them act out MORE. Some of these kids hit and kick other students and are right back in the classroom in 20 minutes. What about the trauma inflicted on their classmates? Everyday knowing you could be hurt and nothing will be done about it? If I was a parent I’d be pulling my kid out of school and homeschooling from what I’ve seen. Oh wait–I did that. And I quit teaching.
This is what’s happening at my school. The kids ate acting out and right back in class. No concern for the other students. The same offenders over and over.
I feel like we have become afraid and scared of these kids!! I don’t think they need us to be scared but it has turned into that. Possibly parents? Or the counselors? Idk. I just wish things would change. It’s always the same kids up in the office daily. How is this going to affect their learning?
You are speaking truth! My question: Since childhood trauma has existed since the beginning, where do we go from this point? Yes, we know how to handle childhood trauma better than we did decades ago but what can we do to make sure we are helping our children and not being a disservice to them. It really is sad to see classrooms disrupted because of other student’s emotional meltdowns that never get resolved in the most beneficial way. When our other students see this happening, beyond having empathy for that other student what kind of message are we sending them. I have so many examples that I have witnessed this past school year: a student throwing chairs, tearing up things on display in the classroom and yet is removed for calm down time with the principal and returns back to class within the hour.
What I have noticed is that my students who are always asking for a break or to go see the social worker are the one who are far behind. It isn’t my on-lrvel students constantly leaving the classroom- it’s my kids reading 5 levels below. And , their choice to constantly leave keeps them behind. They’re using these resources as an escape because they are kids and don’t know how to manage and use such resources wisely. It’s our job as the adult to teach them that they can push through. Unfortunately, we aren’t allowed to say “no” to them, so the problem is only getting worse.
That is exactly what happens in the district that I have taught in for 22 years! Who is advocating for those student victims besides the classroom teacher? There are little to no consequences in my district. Students and teachers are physically and mentally bullied by a minority of students. The majority of students who come to school still want to learn and are suffering and cheated of instructional time by a minority of repeat offenders. Whatever happened to doing what is best for the majority instead of bending over backwards for the minority who refuse to conform?
Best article ever! You just said so perfectly exactly how I feel.
Some random thoughts provoked by your article.
Nothing motivates like success, but it must be genuine success. Students know when they have not earned the tokens of success, and these become meaningless.
Grades are neither success nor learning. They are the tokens that education has chosen to implement. Whenever I have attended student-parent meetings with other teachers (e.g., IEP, 504), most teachers emphasize the tokens rather than the learning. Parents and students buy into this (because they must?) and focus on the grade in the class. This focus on the tokens leads to one of two unhelpful outcomes. 1.) Grades are inflated, and top grades are handed out for things like being in class, leading students to “grade apathy.” 2.) Tasks and tests are made so difficult in the name of “rigor,” and the system is so skewed against success, that students recognize they cannot gain the all-important token of success no matter how hard they try, so they quit trying. Then teachers complain in both cases that “students don’t care about grades.” My question is, in the typical situation, why should they?
BTW, “rigor” is often used as a buzzword without definition. Rigor is not simply more work; that’s onerous. According to the U.S. Department of State, rigor consists of four elements: 1.) Depth and integrity of inquiry; 2.) Sustained focus; 3.) Suspension of premature conclusions; 4.) Constant testing of hypotheses. I added a fifth element for my students: Formal and Personal Challenge. Then I explained what each of those elements looked like in a world language classroom.
A psychology professor I had at university provided us with an insight that has stuck with me throughout my career. Children, including teens, (most often) push against boundaries because they want to be certain that they hold. The boundaries not only keep children in, they keep bad things out, and children want to know the adults in their lives will protect them.
As a result, I worked to have as few rules as possible but enforced them without fail. My students and I had an often rollicking good time, and they excelled in learning German because everyone knew the classroom was safe, what the requirements were, and that their effort would be rewarded with something greater than a mark on a piece of paper.
Teachers help students when they provide an environment that is safe and supports genuine success, which includes recognizing and accommodating needs as opposed to wants or ideology.
This is what I need to work on:
“A psychology professor I had at university provided us with an insight that has stuck with me throughout my career. Children, including teens, (most often) push against boundaries because they want to be certain that they hold. The boundaries not only keep children in, they keep bad things out, and children want to know the adults in their lives will protect them.”
Thank you!!
Excellent observations of intrinsic motivation. I love that you are teaching RIGOR in your classroom with definition and purpose. Your students are sure to benefit not only in your class but can apply this learning to other classes as they look past the reward tokens and deeper into personal learning satisfaction.
I get that you’re frustrated with admins who use trauma as an excuse to not enforce discipline and promote time consuming behavioral development programs that are meaningless. But serious childhood trauma, among all young people and especially among kids from poorer families, is frighteningly common and has scientifically proven and measurable effects on cognitive functioning that must shape our teaching practices generally. The title and tone of your article seem to deny both the extent of the problem and the need for any kind of general response. We certainly must improve our response but it seems you are aiming more towards abandoning it.
I did not get the sense from the article that he said – dismiss or give up on them. “What students need—especially those who’ve experienced actual trauma—is the message that they can overcome…of course, if there is a student who has just experienced real trauma, then we should provide support and reassurance that we care. Even still, the best thing you can do for them, short and long term, is provide structure, consistency, and purpose.
Kids are resilient if only you allow them to be.”
“Kids do well if they can.” (Ross Greene) Some students need to be explicitly taught SEL and social skills to regulate their emotions so that their energy level matches the given task, inside and outside of school. However, I do support your idea of more rigorous standards and student responsibility.
You are right in the mark! Abigail Shrier is an excellent resource if you want to go down this path a bit more. She has the same message.
I agree.
I agree with the basic point of keeping high expectations for students, with high support.
Throw out the excuses and blame. Take responsibility for one’s choices. Outrageous and harmful behavior must have firm consequences.
But do not throw out all SEL learning. Knowledge of what emotions are, how people respond to one another, skills in communication and understanding are valuable and help people grow in character and empathy. In my own experience, it would have been so helpful to have learned much sooner in life to identify what I was feeling, why, and how to communicate what I was experiencing and what was needed.
I agree with this. My students learn preventative SEL skills and I see them practice them. Our students are taught that emotions are just information about what you’re experiencing, not good or bad, just info. They are taught how to pause, breathe, and assess before reacting. Just like learning math facts takes practice, so does learning how to cope with emotions in a healthy way. If we don’t teach them at school, they may not learn these skills. And many SEL skills are the soft skills students need to have to be successful working with others when they get a job or career as an adult. I’d have to find the article, but it said something to the effect that there 16 key soft skills all employers want potential employees to possess, even over possessing high content knowledge (since that can often be taught/reinforced on the job). Employers find it increasingly difficult to work with people who can do the best work but can’t manage themselves or work well with others. Because of this, our school reinforces consequences (which is not the same as punishment). Consequences are not good or bad. They are helping the student learn boundaries. and, it depends on the kid. For some kids, just talking to them is enough. For others, time out/away from friends is a motivator or calling home is enough. Our students also don’t get out of learning if they are temporarily removed from class (such as temporary removal for the rest of the day in another class or the office) or more long term consequences like a suspension. Students’ education is too important even if they aren’t ready to participate properly in their class. We gather work and administrators, teaching assistants, parents, etc. still expect the student to learn and not get behind. If one good thing came out of Covid, it’s the ability to switch from in-person to online learning seamlessly now. I believe we can teach kids resilience and grit while also protecting their humanity and sense of self so they don’t perpetuate the cycle of being traumatized and traumatizing others. I wish I had SEL learning as a kid. I may have better dealt with the traumas I experienced and made better decisions as a teenager and adult later. I have done the work and know so much more now and I see how it’s helped me which helps others too. I don’t think throwing SEL out is the answer. I think we are moving in the right direction. My students and my own children feel it is essential for them to learn academics and soft skills, to be considered with unconditional positive regard, and still held to high expectations with consistent support of their mind and spirit. When they feel seen, they feel confident, willing to take risks when learning, and learn perseverance. When they know some adult, any adult, is rooting for them and is willing to walk with them through challenges, they are willing to accept responsibility and do their best. Building relationships is key!
thanks for some very good thoughts, I agree
Great article. And I agree with Zoe that SCM principles are in fact an effective way to address trauma in your teaching. The combination of kindness/lack of friction + rigor is what students need.
Thank you for addressing this topic! I have taken the approach stated in this article because it makes sense to me and all my students do well. However, I have had students who have Education Assistants with them who do the pull outs, check ins, etc and on the days they are there, that student’s misbehaviour is higher and there is very little learning time at all. Yet I find myself second guessing what I do and wondering if I should have more SEL in my class. Again thanks for clarifying some things about all this for me.
Yes, and thank you for speaking out! I hear so many teachers making excuses for student behavior instead of holding children accountable. I teach kindergarten (25 years) and you can bet that I’ve seen a difference in students from my first year to now, but they leave my class the same as ever because I hold them to the same high standards. They come in sad, angry, oppositional, etc. and leave happy and loving school. Even the obviously ADD can be held to the same standards. They need the structure even more than others in order to be successful in school. I call it “leveling the playing field” for them and I have not been very popular with some colleagues, but until it doesn’t work I will continue on. Authority and consistency, pleasantly administered, creates happy kindergartners who love school. Last year my most challenging student told me he wanted to be a kindergarten teacher when he grew up. LOL.
That is so heartwarming to read about your students loving school, even the challenging ones. I admire you and your teaching methods!
I wholeheartedly agree with not pulling students out for social emotional support. They’re just going to come back having missed partof the lesson and now in need of extra academic support from their classmates or me. I also dislike the open door wellness center that allows them to leave class frequently.
One thing I do like, and incorporate in my classes occasionally, is mindfulness and mindset education. I make efforts to encourage all of my students to challenge their own thinking, especially negative thoughts.
Such a powerful blog. Maybe one of the most powerful of this time. I couldn’t agree more and what I see in my own experience is so sad. No drive, no goals, no pride in themselves, no desire to thrive in anyway. I believe we have done a huge disservice to our children by not teaching them how to persevere. By being so afraid to push them if just a bit. It breaks my heart to see what I do everyday and if your like me and push them because you know they can they despise you for it. There is no longer accountable or consequences but how will they learn. How will they learn and grow if they aren’t challenged and if they aren’t held accountable. I have a deep rooted fear for what’s to come and feel that we have made them complacent and we only have ourselves to blame. We are responsible for our children and their success. To lead them on the right path. To guide them to show them a better way! I hope others see what you do and aren’t afraid to be the change that we need. If we don’t do something now I fear things will only get worse and we will create a generation that are given excuses, make excuses and become the excuse. I love my job and I’m fortunate to be one of the few people that feels this way about my career. Being a teacher is a part of my soul.. we have to continue believing in them the way we once did. It is only this way that we will guide the change and the one way that they can be the change.
Thank you Erin! This is so well said! I have been teaching for 24 years now and you just wrote exactly how I feel! I have seen such a difference in my students and parents since I’ve been teaching You summed it up perfectly.
Childhood trauma is a real fact. There is abuse, neglect, violence, crime, drug use, family strife, fatigue and health problems all around. Teachers are often filled with responsibilities, lesson plans, meeting the standards of lesson delivery, managing the class behavior, record keeping, meeting expectations for themselves and the students and overworking long hours at work and after work, that the true purpose is sometimes misunderstood. Most of the students are dealing with life as best they can. Some are misunderstood at home, at church, in the community and at school. Where as the proper use of time and purpose must be considered, counselors, paraprofessionals are spending their valuable time with the purpose of helping the students to find their true purpose and to be a stepping stone in the students total success. Yes, there is trauma, but efforts are being made to faulter them. I am saying to you, not all, but some students suffer, hurt, unnoticed daily. Staff personnel are offering to help and should. The how, why, when is an issue of time management.
I agree
One student i had this year in particular will move on to the next grade level (and harder math class) after having attended roughly 3/4 of my classes and keeping an average of 50. He was very emotionally distraught, was combative, and was a tremendous distraction to everyone in the classroom, myself included. We (parents, teachers, admin, counselor) dedicated hours and hours toward him in conferences, emails, notes, chats, etc. and constantly adjusted his meds. Sadly, in spite of all the effort and with all his missing class, he will move onward to the next teacher without the skills he needs to be successful. The problem is just compounded. We as a group have sought his emotional stability over all other goals. I wonder if we had instead sought his mathematical stability/skills and demanded more of him, we would have gotten his emotional stability thrown in too.
Michael,
Thank you for your continued great work.
I definitely need to keep praying for wisdom and so much more to be able to do my job with discernment and true love for the good of the children.
I appreciate your ongoing support and efforts for bringing up the most important issues to me personally for so many years.
With gratitude always.
The soft bigotry of low expectation !
I’d also point to the importance of structural things we should always be advocating for – caps on class size and counselor caseloads, educator retention, on-the-clock opportunities for faculty to meaningfully collaborate. I don’t mean listening to canned PD, but having time meet in their grade level/department teams to help one another serve students well. When I have a student who is struggling academically or has behavioral issues, it always helps when I am actually given the time and space to connect with their other teachers. And I want those other teachers to be excellent educators who have been at my school for a long time and are able to stay. If you have these things in place, kids are going to automatically be better supported.
I realize these aren’t things we can accomplish individually, but I have found that it helps to have concrete solutions to advocate for. Ultimately this has to be a collective effort.
The track thus traveled to our current station has seen us depart such great places as: commonsense, independence, learning by doing, learning from mistakes (sister station), reality, the real world, that’s life’s rich tapestry and the school of hard knocks, being kicked when you’re down, getting back on your feet, belief in yourself, determination and ambition.
As our carriage hurtles towards wokeism (wokism?), cotton wool wrapping, plastic bubble, dependency, it’s not your fault, society is to blame, nobody cares about me (boo hoo), help me i demand it, entitlement, stop picking on me, i have rights, you have to help me, i disagree with you so i am going to get you sacked, i am not listening (and it’s sister station) you know nothing.
Is our train heading into the badlands at full pelt with no-one and nothing able to arrest this journey? Can we reverse this ?
I am a 60’s child. I have seen poverty, I grew up watching images on TV of Nazi holocaust Konzentrationslager Auschwitz/Birkenau, Dachau et al inmates, emaciated, barely existing, looking out at the world in a blank, helpless stare. I saw images of the Vietnamese Boat People the Khmer Rouge, Bader Meinhof Gang, Northern Ireland bombings, starvation in Africa and the list goes on. In the real world I saw teachers caning pupils, parents smacking thier children, parents siding with teachers and societal enforcement of moral and social behaviours.
I have also born witness to the rise of anti-society, leftwing unionism, leftist do goddy policies and the response from the far right neo Nazis.
Trauma….no! Education….yes, The real world….yes.
I may have become hardened to the “waterworks” being turned on to get out of doing something, but I am not deranged, psychotic, tarred goods.
I also translate my learning into the classroom. Yes I tell the pupils about the horrors, the terrorists, the fear and we use it as discussion about how I felt vs how modern issues make them feel.
Kids I teach value insight, perspective, history and the opportunity to discuss the modern world. I had many conversations with parents over the tv documentaries we watched together, and some input from teachers whom wr knew would engage in a q/a session outwith curriculae.
I grew up in working class Britain. Hard times, time to work together; good times, times to enjoy our friendships.
We questioned, explored, watched far more uncensored horror and hatred on fewer television channels, no internet or other mass media platforms.
And here I am.
An international English teacher who has just been offered a guaranteed works contract until retirement in 8 years, who has topped the kids’ popularity poll, who has little to no discipline issues from classes i begin and who has pupils only too keen to stop and have those “moments” they treasure later when “he’s dead cool he talks with us and you can ask him things”. The key word is “with”.
My past shaped my present (but not all of it); my present is fluidic and evolving; the future can only remain a work for progress. (correct I deliberately changed in to for ).
My ultimate point is to wholeheartefly agree with Mr Linsin.
The resilience of youth and the adaptability of young people to changing environs should never be underestimated. Sadly, we do not give children the credence they deserve and modern societal propensity to bubble wrap them, shield them from even the mildest storm and remove independence only serves to train their minds to be unable to processs what they are witnesses to.
For the small, and I mean small, numbers who are physically abused or emotionally abused, yes, we need to help, support, adapt our approach.
However, caveat emptor, Parkinson’s Law applies – work expands to fill gaps. If we employ a counsellor, he/she will be busy, so we double the counsellors, both will be busy. Eventually every pupil in school will have been identified as having a “need” where none originally existed.
I leave on a final thought: in Star Trek V, The Final Frontier, Sybok offered to take away Kirk’s (mental) pain. Kirk refused. He stated that it was his pain which made him who he was. I agree. What I have seen has made me mentally strong and stable, yet today would be considered traumatic!
I agree with you that lessening standards, pulling students out of class for extra counseling sessions, or not holding them accountable for their bad behavior is the wrong thing for students who have been traumatized or any student. Where I disagree is when you characterize these actions as SEL education. If you search Casel SEL Framework you will see that there are 5 areas SEL is organized around (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making) and they ARE holding students accountable for their behavior as they grow into adulthood. SEL is not the loosey-goosey permissive philosophy you described in your article. I think actual SEL aligns with your beliefs more than you think and what you are describing isn’t SEL at all. Shame on schools who are, however well intended, hurting kids by not holding them accountable and all the things you mentioned in the name of SEL. I hope you will check out the Casel SEL Framework and rethink your remarks on SEL.
SEL is a huge part of my classroom, but it is infused into everything we do. The systems and strategies I teach are to help students be independent problem solvers who can manage their emotions, social interactions, time, and their learning. SEL is so much more than what you’ve described here. As Ross Greene says, “Kids do well if they can.” Kids have to be TAUGHT these skills before they can be expected. Teach them the tools and strategies to support themselves so that they can access the academics. It’s not nearly as hard or time consuming as people thing when it becomes the way you run your classroom.
This articles are the best thing that can happen to teachers. I agree 100% to this information. If the educational administration doesn’t realize this, the situation will get worst every day.
Thank you for your common sense approach on this subject. I completely agree with you.
A true trauma-Informed approach includes accountability and boundaries. If you ever read anything from Jim Spoerleder he calls it the General Patton + Mr Rogers approach. Kids also need routines and procedures and need to feel safe in the classroom. I believe that the plan/approach on this site fits with that model. Trauma informed classes should never be a free for all.
I couldn’t agree more! We are allowing students to misbehave and get away with so much because of ‘trauma’ in their lives. Guess what? I’ve had trauma, along with so many others, and how you deal with it can make you stronger, if given the right tools to deal with it. We need to STOP allowing these misbehaviors and teach kids how to cope.
In the last ten years, I have seen a rise in victim mentality, and it’s scary. It starts in the offices of LCSW’s, many of whom had their own childhood trauma and are now trying to “help” others. As an HR Specialist, I have also seen a rise in employees with ADHD diagnoses in the workplace, and these employees hardly show up for work, are far behind on their assignments, and eventually end up terminated for major performance issues. Students who have the issues you mentioned above become adults that can’t handle life’s challenges, and it’s really sad to see.
I agree with this being a huge problem. I do think age matters greatly in whether or not kids “need” SEL. In preschool and kindergarten kids used to have tons of opportunities to learn those skills. without it necessarily being a formal time, it has been a part of the curriculum as long as 3-6 year olds have been going to school. But with more and more pressure on academics in these “grades” it’s pushing out time for kids to learn how to be a member of a community and the only time left to do that is SEL time. I think there are ages when learning how to solve a conflict with a peer, give an apology, consider someone else’s perspective, recognize and name what emotions you are experiencing, or learning how to calm down when you’re upset deserve to be apart of the curriculum. As a former kindergarten teacher who now works with three year olds I strongly feel like that there are ages when learning social interaction and emotional regulation skills should be more important that phonics and counting. After all, if kids can get these things when they are 3, 4, 5 years old they will be in a much better position to focus on academics.
I am not surprised. Appeals for these types of criminal cases are difficult. Common cited case here is R. v. John McAughey, 2002 ONSC 2863, you can look it up online. The appeal was for a conviction of assault on a minor in Sprucedale, Ontario in 2000.