Addressing trauma in our schools: Trauma informed education focuses on safety, relationships, consistency and respect

SELWYN

SELWYN Contributed photo/Trish Crapo

By DOUG SELWYN

For the Recorder

Published: 10-04-2024 5:15 PM

Bessel Van Der Kolk, author of the extraordinary book “The Body Keeps the Score,” shares research that shows that the more traumatic experiences (often labeled as Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs) a young person has, the more likely they will have consequences including: learning or behavioral problems in school; chronic depression in adulthood; increased use of anti-depressants; and increased likelihood of suicide attempts. These consequences are not something they simply outgrow or just decide to get over; that’s not how trauma works. Trauma is held in the body, often beneath conscious awareness and it interferes with learning, with connecting with the world, with dealing with what’s right in front of you, and can lead to outbursts, or violence, or shutting down, any of which can be triggered at any moment.

Many schools have adopted some version of what is now being called trauma informed education, which focuses on safety, relationships, consistency, and respect. It does not ignore academics, but does not privilege it over the well-being of the students.

What is trauma informed teaching?

I spoke with several educators, and they shared their visions of what trauma informed education would look like.

In response to trauma, children need stability and safety, and a sense of trust in the adults at school. They need to have confidence that the adults are people they can count on to see them, to love and appreciate them, and to keep them safe. The first challenge of a trauma informed school is to make sure the adults are healthy, well educated in working with children experiencing trauma, supported with adequate resources (counselors, instructional assistants, and relevant materials), and that they have had time to work together as a school community to develop a unified and coherent approach to working with the kids so that they are consistent in their expectations, in what they will or will not tolerate in terms of disrespectful or hurtful or teasing behaviors, and how they will deal with those behaviors.

It starts with relationships

It is crucial to build trust, and that means taking time for the students and teacher in the classroom to get to know each other as people, to create and maintain agreements and expectations for how they will be with each other, and to make sure that those agreements are enforced consistently so that they develop a respect and appreciation for each other, and so that no one is bullied, discriminated against, teased, or put down.

Following COVID isolation, some children seemed to have forgotten how to be in school, or lost the ability to be in a classroom, so teaching and practicing how to be in school, even with some of the older students, is important. As one of my consultants put it, they are not giving you a hard time, they are having a hard time, and it’s important to not take it personally and to attend to what they need. Having an established procedure for when a student becomes stressed or overwhelmed, a place they can go to regroup, and a way for them to communicate when they need a break can help the student feel safe and respected.

Building trust through shared decision making, being transparent and consistent with scheduling, making sure there are opportunities for the students to share and be listened to, and time for students to do something that matters to them all adds to a room that is supportive, structured and safe.

Offering students the opportunity to interact, safely, through classroom meetings, small group activities and whole group play can help students to trust being with others, and learn how to be an engaged and participating member of their classroom.

Academics are still valued and taught, but not at the expense of the health of the children. No lesson is more important than the health and well-being of the children, so making sure that there is a balance of helping children to find/re-find their health and helping them to grow academically is the ideal.

Scheduling time for the arts, for movement, for games or sports is important, since trauma is held in the body, and is often not reachable by words. It is therapeutic for children to have the opportunity to express and explore without a primary focus on words. This does not have to be at the expense of academics; offering students a way to complete or respond to assignments through the arts is one way to approach this.

This sounds great, but

It’s not easy, and it’s not within the budgets of most schools or communities. The two major requirements, time and adequate personnel, are both expensive. It takes time for teachers to learn about working with children with trauma, for educators to come together to create a school culture that is consistent in its values and actions, to learn about the cultures and contexts of the range of students that make up the student population. It takes sufficient personnel so that there are enough counselors, psychologists, instructional assistants, and teachers so that teachers can hope to meet the challenges of a classroom filled with children dealing with trauma. It takes enough personnel that teachers can take time to take care of themselves when they are overwhelmed, by what is happening in the classroom and/or in their own lives, since they may well be facing the same kinds of trauma their students are experiencing. And all the while, there is pressure from the state, the district, and from the community to keep test scores up, the new definition of successful education which is often at odds with what the children need.

On top of that, no matter what happens at school, too many children are going home to families still experiencing trauma. Schools are part of the communities they serve, not separate from them. If families are living with trauma, their children are bringing that trauma to school, and it becomes a difficult cycle to break.

Is it hopeless then? No.

The fact that there are schools working to develop and carry out a trauma informed program is encouraging, and many things that teachers can do in the classroom do not cost big dollars. But what individual teachers can do is not enough. They need more resources, and most districts and towns are already tapped out. How can districts get the resources they need? There are four possible sources that come to mind. First, districts can prioritize spending in light of what we now know about trauma and the needs of children. Second, Massachusetts is a wealthy state, but we get very low marks for distributing that wealth equitably, leaving the great majority of school districts resource poor. More equitable distribution would make a difference. Third, the federal government is enormously wealthy and can provide schools what they need if they decide to invest that great wealth in the health, well-being, and futures of our children. They could easily reduce the military budget by a fourth, roughly $200 billion a year, for example, and make up the estimated yearly shortfall in public education, estimated to be around $150 billion, while still boasting the strongest military in the world. And finally, we can make better use of the assets, the resources in the school and surrounding community through collaborations with social agencies, health care systems, businesses, and volunteers in the community.

There is no quick or easy fix, but trauma in our schools is real. More than 200,000 babies were born during the peak COVID years and have spent their crucial first thousand days living through societal trauma. This entire generation is bringing to our schools a unique and toxic experience that we have not had to deal with before, and we can’t simply go back to business as usual. Our children and families deserve better and require more.