Part 2 - Peek Inside a Classroom: Danny goes to school

by Daun Kauffman, Pennsylvania BAT

originally published on his blog: http://lucidwitness.com/2014/09/13/danny-goes-to-school/

  

Danny Goes to School

Danny’s young parents struggled to find steady jobs and income for their family. (All names are pseudonyms for real people in a very true story.)  Both parents were still dealing with the trauma and stress experienced from their own family’s relocation to the U.S..  Their families had left everything.
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Photo © Daun Kauffman

Danny’s family moved into a rough section of a major city, full of crime and drugs.  He lived with two older siblings, Mom and Dad.   Sadly, Danny’s dad (also named Danny) was violently murdered when Danny was very young.  During Danny’s early years, he was told his dad was “away”.

Danny’s mother, Maria, left alone to support all three children, became despondent and desperate herself.  Drinking and drugs seemed to dull her grief and stress.  Her own attempts to survive financially, regretfully led to her incarceration.  Danny was left without a normal relationship with either parent.  After his mother was released from prison, Danny and siblings lived with Maria for a time, in a deteriorating row house in another crime-ridden neighborhood.  Danny still believed his father was “away”.

Maria was preoccupied with trying to find work and restarting her life including training at the community college.  The traumas of her husband’s murder and memories of childhood violence were engulfing at times.

  Photo by Concha García Hernández

The older siblings had also often witnessed violence.  They had a different father, who had taken custody while Maria was incarcerated.  Reunited with their mother, they now bore the brunt of Maria’s frustration and stress.  Danny often witnessed rage and terrifying violence between his mother and siblings, eventually leading to Maria’s decision to send them back to their dad.

Danny told me that, in his own mind, he was responsible for his separation from his siblings.  He misses them both, especially his older brother.

All alone with Danny, his mother now confided in him that his father was not “away”, but that he had been murdered.  Confusion and grief tortured Danny .

It was at that point, eight years of age, Danny walked into my second grade classroom.  Some days, at first, he seemed resilient.

Photo by Jorge Royan

Danny could share a great, toothy smile that stretched from ear to ear. That smile that connected his ears to his always-bent-or-broken glasses. The layers of tape seemed to mangle the frames more than they helped. . .
Danny loved learning and sharing about his family’s culture. He also loved to run, sprinting, seemingly free as a bird, in those moments.  Danny was a talented artist too, at times loosing track of his surroundings while he created other worlds on paper.

On his good days,  it was clear that Danny’s academic ability was on par or ahead of his classmates and his street smarts were well above average. Those were precious, rare days.

Underneath Danny’s smile was a learned mistrust of adults, and refusal to attach.  Danny’s mother was using alcohol again, and he’d been told (and then physically reminded) that spilling a single drop  any of Mom’s alcohol would result in immediate punishment: standing naked in a frightening, extended icy-cold shower. He also hinted that “somebody’s” anger was why his glasses were broken or “lost” so regularly.

His mistrust created misunderstandings with other kids too.  He spent recess alone as often as he joined in with others.  Danny once told me that his favorite toy and game was “guns”… so that he would be practiced and ready when he was able to find his father’s killer…

Although Danny’s chronological age was only 8, his life was already overwhelmed with fear and loss.  His hyper-vigilant scanning for any threat he might perceive in the classroom created a wall between Danny and others.  Often, Danny’s traumas could be retriggered by a classmate’s slight shift in position, or the most innocent comment or look.  It was impossible to anticipate.  Sometimes Danny arrived at school already triggered by events at home or along the way.  When his fears were triggered, Danny could go off track quickly with a loud, nervous laugh, or an equally disruptive threat yelled to someone across our classroom.  Then he would rip up his classwork, and throw his books, dump his desk, and often make a run for the hallway, with angry tears, screaming “f___ you”.  His classmates watched, gripped in fear.  Danny didn’t know it, but 11+ other children in the same room had similar life stories filled with trauma.

At other times, Danny kept his panic hidden, emotionally “dissociating”, maybe drawing or reading something off-topic, but experiencing the same fear state.  At least twice during his dissociating, Danny quietly, but tensely broke small plastic pencil sharpeners.  When confronted, he quickly put a jagged piece, on his tongue and when further approached, he swallowed.  On another occasion he threatened to swallow the loose blade…

Maria was informed, and the seriousness of Danny’s state was clearly explained.  Her initial responses were to claim that Danny was just having a bad day and to inflict corporal punishment at home.  “It will go away”, Maria claimed.

Meanwhile, our school district did not have other spaces or adults available to allow Danny to de-escalate.  I could not leave the other 25+ children to be with Danny.  Our counselor was on long-term leave with no replacement.  Our school was not staffed with a nurse, daily.

Photo © Daun Kauffman

Danny’s story is NOT an aberration.   Most of my students(6 to 10 years old) know someone who was murdered…  There is about a murder a day, on average, in our city.  Many of the victims have children or familes.  Murder is only one trauma source.  In our classroom there were at least 11 other children with 3+ categories of trauma, who were equally often triggered, often by each other.  See Failing Schools or Failing Paradigm?

 

Wide Scope

Groundbreaking research into childhood trauma, was conducted by Felitti and Anda/CDC among 17,000 participants.  The participants were suburban, middle-class, college-educated, mostly white, employed people with health insurance. Keep in mind: beautiful, suburban San Diego.

The research defined 10 categories of  “adverse childhood experience” (ACE):  physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, or physical or emotional neglect; and/or reside in households with members addicted to alcohol or drugs, or have a mental illness, or where children witness a mother being battered, or lose a parent to separation or divorce or incarceration.

The research findings were stunning !  Two-thirds of participants had experienced at least one of the CDC’s types of childhood adversity, and 22% had experienced 3 or more ACE categories.  Increased ACEs correlated with earlier death ! Prior to death,  experiencing 3+ ACEs correlated with  doubling the risks of depression, adolescent pregnancy, lung disease, and liver disease. It triples the risk of alcoholism and STDs. There is a 5X increase in attempted suicide.




ACE rates seem even higher in urban settings. Across our city, on average, a shocking 37% of the urban population (tens of thousands of children) has experienced 4 or more ACEs, according to the data.  In our specific zip code, the prevalence is a devastating   45+% with 4+ ACEs, essentially half of the children!
It is morally wrong to normalize childhood fear, injury  and ongoing trauma (no matter who is to blame).  How can we just accept this crisis and continue?

The children are not sick or bad, they are injured.  As educators, we cannot immediately prevent the injury, pain or chronic trauma.  But we can fulfill our mission in public schools to educate all who come in through our doors.  See “Do Children Have a Right to be Safe ?”
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Towards Trauma Competency

In a safe setting, a school district would screen for childhood trauma, then injuries would be acknowledged and attended to as the priority.  Whether those injuries are physical, emotional and/or neurological is not relevant.  Equal access to their education is physiologically impossible in “survival” mode.

The lead ACE investigators documented many impacts of 3+ ACEs in the presentation  “Connecting a Developmental Lens to the Health of Society”(especially pgs. 50,51).  Classroom-specific impacts of not addressing the trauma included worse health, more frequent suspension, lower standardized test scores, more frequent designation as special education students, 250% more likely to be retained in grade.

Photo © Daun Kauffman

Trauma-impacted children who are not identified and who live with unaddressed trauma can not access education equally.  They do not perform on standardized tests at the same level as others.  Yet, to receive funding from various sources, our state and our district, continue to be required to evaluate the children  (like Danny) solely as a conglomeration of “standardized test” scores.

It should be the adults who have accountability for training to become trauma-informed.  Adults have responsibility to screen, identify and address trauma in children.  Adults have accountability to accomplish the above promptly to protect the child from permanent damage from chronic traumatic stress.

Away from Trauma Competency

Conversely, many “Education Reformers” (most have not been in our classrooms) are blindly oblivious to the child’s injuries and to the child’s resulting, continuing  fears and stress.  None of the above is even discussed by “reformers”.  Classroom impacts are not acknowledged.  The epidemic of childhood trauma is widely ignored in reformers’ misfocused, impersonal, reform “prescriptions”.

Ignoring, or not caring, adult Education “Reformers” continue to push and push for more ‘standardization’, more testing.

Photo by Alex “eflon” on Flickr

They push on, effectively “bullying” the children, even though the test content itself is in question.  They “bully”,   even though the data says that enduring the test and its high stakes adds even more trauma to already very precarious emotions for Danny and many of his classmates.  “The test” does not discriminate trauma-impacted children from others.  Instead, the test ignorantly masses together our “epidemic”  22% to 45+% trauma-impacted children with all other children into one “score” for the school, and then misleadingly compares the school’s score to other schools.  (Of course this still ignores the additional, roughly 20% of our students who have IEPs, or are ELLs, who also can’t equally access the test,  in this same “mass” score.)

The “reformers'” ill-advised approach is so very unsafe in many ways for so many of our children.
The ultimate injustice is then to classify, or label individual trauma-impacted children like Danny based solely on results of “the test”.
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Becoming Active

I choose to confront the bully.  Join me.

Children do have a right to be safe, in all ways,  when they go to school and they have a right of equal access to their education.

Photo Pixabay public domain

• If you’re not trauma-informed , read here, or  research childhood-trauma  or seek training here or here.

• Listen to a child’s story.  Go back to the child; listen again.

• Read “Failing Schools or Failing Paradigm?“

• Be part of a group (or start one) which invests one-to-one with a group of trauma-impacted children.

• Help raise awareness of trauma in your school and community.  “Share” this blog broadly.

• Read “Do children have a right to be safe ?“

• Learn about political strategies in MA, WA and San Francisco.

• Vote.

Course corrections must all start with the child as the priority.

                       “. . . we must not look away”

Now, when I see a child with a small, plastic pencil sharpener, I still trigger…

“Peek Inside a Classroom” is a series about childhood trauma in public education.   Another part, “Peek Inside a Classroom: Jasmine:“ is here.  “Jasmine” defends against childhood trauma more aggressively than Danny.   “José,  at “Peek Inside a Classroom; José” uses a detached, dissociating defense, which can be confusing.

Part 1 - Peek Inside a Classroom: Failing Schools, or Failing Paradigm ? 

 

by Daun Kauffman, Pennsylvania BAT

originally published on his blog: http://lucidwitness.com/2014/07/16/failing-schools-or-failing-paradigm-2/

PREFACE

Yes, money matters in Education. Money is absolutely necessary,  but money is Not sufficient.

A key variable is missing from the discussions about education reform:  before money, before a “common core”, before standardized testing and before “value added” measures.

Childhood Trauma is  “the elephant in the room”.

Reformers don’t acknowledge childhood trauma,  but it affects every classroom.  There are more trauma-impacted students than English Language Learners (ELL) or those with an Individual Education Plan (IEP).   In some urban locations (pg. 17 map) the prevalence is greater than ELL and IEP students combined!

We must understand and account for trauma-impacted children.

We won’t have a successful education paradigm,
or even accurately interpret academic results,
while ignoring the overwhelming presence of childhood trauma.

Roberto is an eight-year-old, former student in my second-grade class. (All names are pseudonyms.)   In his short life, he’s experienced at least five major life traumas. One: his mother …    please CLICK HERE to continue to the full, original post at ACEsTooHigh.com.

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       Failing Schools or Failing Paradigm ?    

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               Or, search:    Failing Schools or Failing Paradigm ?

Part 3 - Peek Inside a Classroom: Jasmine

by Daun Kauffman, Pennsylvania BAT
 

originally published on his blog:  http://lucidwitness.com/2015/08/21/peek-inside-a-classroom/

 

What happened to Jasmine?

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Photo © Jinx!/Flickr

When you look inside a classroom there are some things you can not see….

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Jasmine was one of my favorites.

She was one of the shortest, scrawniest children in our second grade classroom.  Maybe 45 pounds with her coat on.   Her tattered backpack seemed as big as she was.  Somehow the tiniest children can hold the most energy, the most emotion, and somehow they manage to get the most compassion from me.

© Soloway/Dreamstime

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When you peek in our room you may see Jasmine stealthily surveying the classroom for the child most likely to respond the most spiritedly when she gives them the “the finger”, or when she “gives them” a freshly sharpened pencil, in the side of the head, perfectly thrown from twenty feet away.

When Jasmine is unsuccessful in provoking a classmate’s response, she can get really amped.  I have heard guttural profanity and I have been horrified to see her hoist a school chair over her head and heave it at a classmate.  More surprising, sometimes Jasmine targets someone twice her size. Sometimes she will even taunt teachers, naming one “Young Buck”.  Once juking her way around him, beating him to the hallway fire alarm, and crisply setting it off.
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Jasmine’s motivation is not related to anything we can see.  It’s complicated.  What we don’t see is “why”.  Why would such a young child with such a lovable smile be so aggressive and confrontational?
Her teachers (including me) often see these behaviors as ‘disruptive’, which they most certainly are. Even seeing her as “bad”.
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What none of us see is that the classroom setting is not necessarily related to Jasmine’s actions either.  Jasmine’s confrontational behavior can already be in full swing before she even reaches the school.  Sometimes she freely enters the courtyard looking for someone to suckerpunch, or to bait by verbally defiling their mother.   The “best” target is the one who will respond aggressively.  Jasmine wants a fight, not someone who will run.  She can’t “release” anything if they run.  More than once, Jasmine physically assaulted teachers who intercepted her attempts to get physical with a classmate.

Our school had no regular nurse and the counselor was on longterm leave. There wasn’t even an empty room where  Jasmine could de-escalate.
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Is Jasmine bad or is there something else?  Why is her behavior so volatile; one minute so calm and the next, so agitated?
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Beginning to “see”

We have to ask questions.  Carefully ask the right questions.

It’s NOT a question of what’s wrong with Jasmine.

It is a question of what happened to Jasmine.
(See Foderaro, pg. 191 in ‘Creating Sanctuary’ by Sandra Bloom M.D.)

Most immediately what has happened to Jasmine is that she has been “triggered”.  The trigger is “thing” that started her visible, physical “release”.  You could peek in the classroom all day. In fact, you could look right at the trigger, and not see it.

Jasmine probably can’t identify the trigger either. It was very likely some sensory detail:  something Jasmine saw, heard, smelled, touched, or even tasted. It’s locked in her (non verbal) memory and associated with a time of intense fear.  It may have been as “innocent” as a ticking clock, or the nail polish color on a finger, an untucked shirttail, or even a backpack. The final memory that registered before abuse.

Meanwhile, as you are looking in our room, make sure you see the other 29 children with Jasmine.  Her behaviors have ripple effects.  You will see some of the 29 tense up and some may indeed become triggered themselves by something in Jasmine’s behavior.

So, it’s not necessarily the setting, and we can’t identify a trigger, and it affects the whole educational process.  Therefore some may surmise that it’s an unpredictable and unmanageable situation.    If you are intent at that moment upon relentless pursuit of academics, the situation will be unmanageable.

© Andrew Taylor/Flickr

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Back to Jasmine: something else you probably didn’t notice came earlier.  Before her visible, physical “release” came neurobiological processes that put her into a hyper aroused defense mode.

Hyper arousal is one of nature’s perfectly logical defenses, in Jasmine’s case, to  a sensory memory embedded deeply in her brain (in her amygdala to be precise).  Now in “fight-or-flight” mode from a terrifying memory, the brain is flooded with adrenaline and cortisol, preparing for action.  When already in a state of hyper arousal, the slightest additional cue can detonate defensive action.

After hyper arousal(from the memory), and the trigger in the moment, the pent up traumatic energy (stress or fear) is released.  That release is the defense that we can see.

“Defense against what?” you may still be asking.

Defense against something else that none of us see.

What none of us see is what happened to Jasmine.
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Frustrated?

Welcome to the world of teaching children.

Welcome to the world of trauma-impacted children.

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Public Health Research

Childhood trauma is a response of overwhelming or helpless fear, or terror.  Specifically, it is a response to abuse, neglect, to a missing parent, or a household which includes violence, mental illness, or substance abuse.  Other childhood traumas can include experiences with community violence, or ethnic oppression, and many more.  Let’s be clear.  Trauma means things like rape. Like physical beatings, like relentless emotional destruction, or maybe complete disregard for basic physical needs.  Total neglect of another human being.  Often the trauma is inflicted by someone who is a “caregiver”.

The CDC’s public health research says that 22% of our children are trauma-impacted with 3+ categories of trauma,  to the point of predictable, lifelong damage and early death.  Yes, early death.  Early death related to childhood experience.  They call it “Adverse Childhood Experience” (ACE).

Center for Disease Control

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ACEs are no respecter of demographics, zip code or socio-economic status.  The CDC researchers found that even in beautiful suburban San Diego, roughly one-fourth of the mostly middle class, mostly white, working folks with medical insurance had experienced 3 or more ACEs!

ACE rates in urban areas can be double the suburban level, but the 22% rate in San Diego is shocking in itself.  Percentages translate to 6 to 7 children (6 to 7 “Jasmines”), severely trauma impacted with 3+ ACEs, in a class of 30, even in suburban San Diego.

Three or more ACEs is significant because experiencing 3 or more ACEs correlates with doubled risk of depression, adolescent pregnancy, lung disease, and liver disease. It triples the risk of alcoholism and STDs.  There is a 5X increase in attempted suicide.
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Neuroscience Research

Neurobiology tells us that trauma’s impact is deep.
Chronic, or complex trauma changes children’s physical brains, and impairs cognitive and social functioning.  These injuries relate specifically to the prefrontal cortex and academic processes, especially executive function, memory and literacy.

So, the children are not “bad” or sick, they are injured. (See ‘Destroying Sanctuary’ p 135 by Sandra Bloom M.D.)

Neurobiology further informs us that cognition shuts down for trauma-impacted children who are overwhelmed by a state of chronic, or complex trauma:  it is physiologically impossible to learn.
Trauma-impacted children can not equally access their education.

More learning from neuroscience is that young children can not “just get over it”.  In fact, the younger the child, the more immature the physical brain and the less practiced in social defenses, the greater the damage the more difficult to access and verbalize, and the longer it takes to heal, if ever.
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Trauma Informed Education

There is an abundance of literature on the topic of ACEs and Trauma-Informed education. A successful education paradigm requires: a) explicit acknowledgement of childhood trauma, b) screening students, c) training teachers and d) creating “safety” across the learning environment.  (See “Common Sense” for much more detail.)

Crucial investments towards safety include appropriate class-sizes, with limits on trauma-impacted children per classroom.  For example, one teacher alone will struggle to be effective aiding one ‘triggered’ student from among the 6+ who have 3+ ACEs, within a classroom of 30 kids, who are waiting to be taught.  Additionally, dedicated appropriate space for children to de-escalate is needed, as well as on-site nurses and counselors; counselors, who build safe, trusting relationships with the children and families.
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© Elliot Gilfix/Flickr

What no one can see by peeking in the room:

What happened to Jasmine ?

When I had my first peek at Jasmine, she was in Kindergarten.  Someone had confined her in the small, 4X6 entryway of the main office, in the narrow space between the registration counter and the wall with the bulletin board.  The veins on her neck bulged and throbbed, as she lay on her back furiously kicking and screaming, her face smeared with tears.  She’d already ripped all the paperwork from the bulletin board.
I could see the behavior.
I could not see the ACEs Jasmine was impacted by.
My eyes were opened only later when I sensitively started asking her caregivers” What happened to Jasmine?”  Only then did I begin to “see”.  I saw the incarceration of her father.  I saw the death of her mother.  I heard her uncle’s anger at “having to take in his sister’s baby”.  Still, the uncle “caregiver” rarely sees Jasmine because of his night shift work.
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Photo © Daun Kauffman

Earlier, when I’d walked Jasmine home that night from Kindergarten I was scared (as an adult) to see the squalor and the dilapidated row house. The front door was hanging open to the street and it was dark inside. I know there is drug traffic and drug related violence on her block and the surrounding blocks.  Alarm shifted to anger when the smell of illegal smoke wafted out the open door with moaning sounds of stupor inside.   Who knows the horrors a little girl may endure there.   I was somewhat relieved when Jasmine’s cousin bounded out to meet us. But I have never forgotten what I saw.
Now, when I see a child with a backpack, I still trigger…
Keep in mind that Jasmine is NOT an unusual child.   Nine+ other trauma-impacted children were in our one classroom that year.  See “Danny Goes to School” and “Failing Schools or Failing Paradigm?”.  Also, keep in mind that children react to trauma in very different ways.  See José’s totally different defense pattern HERE.
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Trauma-Impacted Students Do Not Have Equal Access to their Education

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Our education systems are NOT trauma informed today.  Districts don’t train teachers.  Children and schools remain unsafe, and trauma informed systems remain unfunded.

Preparing individual “Section 504” plans for individual children does not address system-wide needs and is not a practical option, given the scope: millions of students.
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Education “reformers” focus on “Common Core” and standardized testing.  They use phrases like ‘no excuses’ and ‘high expectations for all’ without providing appropriate accommodations for all. That contradiction is wrong. Morally wrong.
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Reformers ignore the 22%+ of trauma-impacted children and their classmates.  In my urban district, the rate is even higher, at 45+% children with 3+ ACEs.  “ACE-blindness” disproportionately penalizes urban districts impacted with doubled rates of trauma.  That is doubly wrong.  .  .  (See “Common Sense” ).
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Photo © Jinx!/Flickr

Instead of accommodation, punishment.  Punishment at the system level (much like punishment at the personal level).


The system generates wrong decisions, life-changing decisions, based on uninformed, misleading data.  Attempting to compare States’ or School Districts’ scores, and even individual schools, given the wide variations in trauma rates, is dangerously wrong.  Then realize that the system continues this travesty at an even more deluded level:  an individual classroom compared to another individual classroom.  Even comparing those classrooms to year ago “scores”. None of the above get adjusted for radical variations in rates of trauma of as much as 100%!

An uninformed approach.

We still do not see.

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Further Action Steps

We have the right to be frustrated and angry about what happens to all our Jasmines and her classmates!
Our own U.S. Department of Justice report,  “Defending Childhood”, identified childhood trauma as a national crisis years ago! The CDC says it is critical to understand.

Becoming Trauma Informed is no longer optional. Let’s channel that anger into action.
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Besides what is outlined in the earlier section in this post above,  under “Trauma Informed Education”, (and at “Defending Childhood“), here are some additional Action Steps:

1) An immediate opportunity for action is lawmakers’ rewrite of national education legislation (ESEA), ironically known as “No Child Left Behind”.

Click  this ‘OpenCongress’ link to get names of your Congress members. Click on a lawmaker and then find contact information on right side of screen.

Ask your lawmakers to acknowledge and fund accommodations in ESEA for trauma-impacted children(outlined above under “Trauma Informed Education”) !   Email or call them today, or send them a link to this blog.  Or,  see “Common Sense”  for a sample note to lawmakers, at end of that blogpost.
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2) If you are in Pennsylvania, there is a second opportunity, maybe even larger opportunity for you, with state lawmakers, detailed here (with contact information at the end of the post).
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3) If you’re not trauma-informed , read here, or  research childhood-trauma here, and  here, or seek training, here,  here , here  or here.

© Soloway/Dreamstime

“What happened to Jasmine?” is a true story utilizing pseudonyms.


“Peek Inside a Classroom” is a series about childhood trauma in public education.  Another part, “Peek Inside a Classroom:José:“ is here.  “José” defends against childhood trauma differently, completely differently, than Jasmine.  “Danny” at “Peek Inside a Classroom; Danny” uses each of their defenses at times.

Part 4 - Peek Inside a Classroom: José

by Daun Kauffman, Pennsylvania BAT
 

originally published on his blog: http://lucidwitness.com/2015/09/25/peek-inside-a-classroom-jose/

Photo Credit Katie Brady at flickr Katie@!

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José was one of the calmest, quietest, most peaceful boys in the classroom.  The kind of boy everybody loves.

José  had thick, coal-black hair and matching black-marble eyes.  He was always in an immaculate, crisp school uniform, often with a warm sweater around his sturdy frame.  José’s family never adjusted to the cool northeastern temperatures in winter.  They were from a small town in Panama, emigrated here shortly before José’s birth and now live in a quiet, clean, working class neighborhood.

José lived with two cousins, an uncle, an aunt, Mom, baby brother and sometimes Dad. He had been an only child until October of second grade, when his brother was born.

José is very proud of “his country”, Panama.  His passion is soccer.  He loved everything about soccer.  If there was a televised soccer game involving Panama, José knew all about it.

José’s strong academic performance had begun in first grade.  His reading level in September, at the start of second grade, was about half-year ahead, in the top 10% of the class and his math results were in the top quarter of the class.

Looks great so far, right ?
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WHEN YOU LOOK INSIDE A CLASSROOM THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU CAN NOT SEE

Photo © Jinx!/Flickr

A few weeks into the new school year José’s reserved social traits began to intensify.  He had been polite and respectful, but at that point he became unusually silent, a moody silent: frowning.  He stopped participating in class.  When called on to answer a question, José often hadn’t even heard the question. Inattentive and forgetful, he sometimes completely checked-out with his head in his arms, down on the desk.  He began ‘forgetting’ his glasses about half the time.  He was unresponsive and avoidant with classmates.   At first, I thought sleep-deprived, which usually resolves itself after adjusting to new school year routines.  Now that the calendar reached into October I began to suspect something more.

As the year continued on into late October/November, José’s academic pattern emerged to be wildly inconsistent. A student’s literacy results are usually in a narrow range, but  José’s pattern was wild swings between ‘A/B’ and ‘D/F’, week by week.

José’s behaviors were more than ‘daydreaming’: he was detached, forgetful, ‘stunned’ even, with muted responses, low energy, chronic fatigue and more – all in context of his fluctuating academics.
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Public Health Data

Childhood trauma is the response of overwhelming or helpless fear, or terror.  Specifically, it is a response to abuse, neglect, to a missing parent, or a household which includes violence, mental illness, or substance abuse.  Other childhood traumas can include experiences with community violence, or ethnic oppression, and more.

See more detail at “Common Sense” on varying rates of trauma from 22% up to 45+% of all children.  From idyllic middle class suburbs, to rough urban settings.  Childhood trauma is no respecter of demographics.

Center for Disease Control

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The child who is hyper-aroused, hypervigilant, aggressive and disruptive is often the ‘Poster Child’ for abuse.   They also get the attention in a classroom setting where learning for 30 students is the goal. See “Jasmine” at “Peek Inside a Classroom“.

However, children respond to trauma in a wide spectrum of defensive behaviors(as in “fight, flight or freeze”).  Besides hyper-arousal, one different defense to trauma is “dissociation”. See here, and here, and Sandra Bloom p. 41-49,  Cozolino (especially Chapter 14),  and Levine and Kline (especially Chapter 3). José’s behaviors were compliant, but stunned or “disconnected”, “in a fog”.   The dissociation defense spectrum can continue all the way to catatonic and even "multiple personalities".

In any case, it is physiologically impossible to learn for children  in the midst of complex trauma.
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Pixabay public domain

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Dissociating students are much more likely to be unsupported, or even completely unnoticed.  Even when teachers (I have been guilty too) are trained and are able to notice “José”, it can be tempting to ignore him, and take advantage of the calm classroom to teach the other 30 children.  “Roberto” (Click HERE) is another example of a student in dissociation.  “Danny” (Click HERE)  exhibited behaviors of both hyperarousal and dissociation.

I had suspicions about deeper, life issues for José, but I wanted to hear directly from José.  In an empty classroom, in private I reassured him that he was not in trouble (the location and the message and tone were all part of establishing “safety”). I continued by sharing that I was surprised at his score on the latest reading test, because I knew from his other tests that he was able to do the work.  I mused that sometimes when things change at school, that’s because they had changed at home first. I wondered out loud if everything was okay?. . .

José hesitated, but eventually shared that he “missed dad” (even though José described him as a “rough man”).  “He doesn’t come home any more”.  Instead dad goes to José’s aunt’s (dad’s sister’s) house in the evenings “because dad says ‘it’s more fun there.  He thinks it’s boring at home’”.  José believed final divorce was near.

José hung his head, and he broke into tears at this point. At first he was turned away and “hidden”.  A confused, powerless, embarrassed posture.  I hugged him lightly and said ‘it must be hard’.  He nodded and went silent. I decided to wait to talk with Mom till we could talk in person.  I knew that children’s versions of their parent’s lives can be hazy and incomplete.
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DISSOCIATION: One more thing you can not see when you look in a classroom.

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Pixabay credit cocoparisienne. Public domain.

Two days later, on a gray rainy day, Mom came to school to pick up José.  When I shared what José had said to me, she had the same response as José: very soft and fragile emotionally, with quivering lip and almost immediate tears.  It was clear that they were both suffering deeply from the broken marriage.  I suggested that it might help José to have someone to talk to outside of school.  She took José home, promising she would find someone.
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Relation-based, on-going, or “Complex”, trauma is the most heinous type of trauma (versus ‘environmental-based trauma, and one-time events). See van der Kolk pgs. 392-396.
Complex trauma occurs during childhood, within the family system: caregivers who are accountable for protection and love.  Instead, chronic, overwhelming fear and pain, and no escape: incest, physical abuse, witness to intimate partner violence, are examples. As another example, Divorce, no matter how “friendly”, rocks the child’s world.  A terrifying loss of security and love to young children.  Results of Complex Trauma impair least seven domains, as detailed at Cook, et al,(2005).
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Photo Credit Katie Brady at flickr Katie@!

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Back to José:  his mom returned  the following week and abruptly announced that “all that stuff we talked about” last week was “fine” now:  the father was not an issue. José was “wrong” according to her.  She was curt, did not want a discussion, turned and left quickly.  It happens too often.  Guards are down, things are shared, but then later denied.

So, I planned to be exceedingly clear at upcoming Report Card conferences about what I was still seeing at school, in spite of Mom’s denial.  I had every intention of being brief and crisp (and probably too cold).   I was frustrated about lack of attention to José, and his pain and the secondary status of his learning, after all, I was his teacher, and (I felt), his advocate.
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Some adults dismiss the impact of adverse events (ACEs) on children, thinking “they’re too young to understand anyway, or “they’re young, they’ll get over it”.

Actually, this common adult perspective is exactly wrong.  It is precisely BECAUSE the child is “too young” that their ability to defend against intense stress and trauma is far weaker and the results are far worse than an adult exposed to the same event. 
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flickr Public Domain

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Children’s brains are still developing: 1) Their brains are not fully ‘wired’.  The immature brain is “use-dependent”, meaning it develops in areas that are used, and therefore more vulnerable to mis-wiring, or mis-developing, from chronic defensive usage.  See early brain development p.3-6, 2) The chronic, powerful chemical baths of cortisol and adrenaline during “fight or flight” cause direct damage to still-developing brain cells, and 3) children’s frontal cortices are not yet experienced in processing and logically understanding the source of fear.  Their immature coping mechanisms are easily undermined and their sense of helplessness or powerlessness is relatively greater than an adult.  

So, over time, unaddressed trauma changes the physical structure and functioning of children’s brains and will lower the quality of their lives and likely result in early death.   Levine and Kline p. 4,   Perry p. 245,   Perry (again),  and the CDC Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) research.

José’s mom arrived for our conference cuddling a new infant, José’s 5 month old brother.  I shared preemptively, and somewhat formally, that José’s academic performance was now distinctly below average.
I had struggled to give him “C”s.  I also shared that José’s performance continued to be wildly erratic.  I described the swings as clear evidence that he still has very high ability.  Students don’t just have ability "on occasion".

Erratic academics often mean there is “something ‘inside him’ troubling the student”.  I wondered aloud if there was anything she could think of?

I stopped.  The room was silent.
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A dependent, child can not be known in a vacuum.  The child is a dependent member of a ‘family system’.  See summary of M. Bowen (in Louis Cozolino;  Chapter 3).  When one person in the system is impacted by trauma, all others are impacted in relation to that member.  José (and mother) were impacted by a variety of insecurity and abandonment issues, related to his father.  The divorce was a pending fracture to their system, and even more in José’s eyes, a pending earthsplitting re-definition of his entire world.  José is not unusual, given  divorce rates in our country near 50%…
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Pixabay photo credit Alexas_Fotos, Public Domain

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Warning:  It suddenly became overpoweringly emotional.  An intense, flooding release.  Mom struggled to share through heaving sobs.  Her wounds were obviously still open and tender.  First she shared that, yes, there was something bothering José “inside.”  The phrase "inside of him" had seemed to translate powerfully.
Suddenly,  Mom blurted,  “Yes, ‘inside’ José is still dealing with the death of his aunt, Maria, his Dad’s sister.”   Maria had died about only 8 or 9 months ago, in  mid-summer, right before school.  She had been José’s favorite aunt.  Apparently their love and affection were mutual.
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DISSOCIATION: One more thing you can not see when you peek in a classroom.

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It got more intense.  Mom continued:  Maria suffered painfully and ultimately died from burns covering 100% of her body. . .  the result of a gas leak, explosion, and fire.  Maria’s brother, José’s dad, was working on the same street, heard the explosion which caused the fire, heard his sister’s screams and was completely powerless to help.

Mom shared that Dad then went “deep inside himself”, completely shutting out the entire family.  Mom described dad as ‘totally unavailable’ for two to three months – increasing abandonment fears for the rest of the family.

Yet, to this day, José has never made mention of Maria or her death to me.
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Mom herself was close to Maria.  Grieving and preoccupied, she tried to disconnect by wrapping herself in preparations for her baby-to-come. The baby came in October, a brand new “attraction” in the family.  Mom acknowledged that she also dramatically cut time and communication with José.  Her words, translated;  “ignored”,  “forgot”.

Even so, José never mentioned his little brother to me.  He seems to have no affect for him.  If José refers to him at all, it is only by his ‘position’, “my baby brother”.  He doesn’t speak his name.

At this point in the report card conference (yes it was still the same conference).  We were all in tears.
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Successful education is centered on José  —  

       not on José’s test scores.    

 

Trauma Informed Education

José’s academics must be understood holistically. José can not and will not “just get over it.”   The neurobiological impacts of trauma are real.  The physical and emotional impacts over time of “stuffing” or denying hurt, tension and anger can lead to explosive results.

José, defending himself “invisibly”, in dissociation, needs every bit as much accomodation as Jasmine does in her hyper-aroused defense.  They simply defend themselves differently in “fight or flight”.
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Both defenses, hyper-arousal and dissociation,  block equal access to a child’s education.

Alarmingly, schools today are not trauma-competent,  not even trauma-informed. “José”s are still not accomodated.

There is no excuse.

Conversely, a trauma-informed education paradigm requires: a) explicit acknowledgement of childhood trauma, b) screening students, c) training teachers and staff, and d) creating “safety” across the learning environment.

Crucial  investments  towards safety include appropriate class-sizes, with limits on trauma-impacted children per classroom.  Additionally, dedicated appropriate space for children to de-escalate is needed, as well as on-site nurses and counselors; counselors, who build safe, trusting relationships with the children and families.  (See “Common Sense” and here and here and here for more detail on some “beginnings”.)

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Presently, the education “reform” environment has resulted in the opposite —  disinvestment — in Public Education. In our own city the total local/state/federal funding is described as an “Empty Shell” Budget.  How long will we keep trying to do what can’t be done?

Further, reformers’ paradigm, which focusses on education as a single ‘silo’ of only one dimension(standardized test results), blocks our view of the whole child.   See “Failing Schools or Failing Paradigm?”

Years ago, the Department of Justice, the CDC and past Surgeon Generals identified childhood trauma as a “national crisis”.  The CDC says trauma impacts are critical to understand.

Trauma-competent schools with equal access to education are a  moral and legal right for children. . . now.

We have a right to be impatient and angry!

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What can be done ?  Call, write or email your legislators today!  Or share the link for the Common Sense blog post.

Contact info and a sample note is HERE  at the end of the Common Sense blog post.

(Note: Names of all people and places are pseudonyms, in a true narrative.)

 
I still flashback now, when I see a soccer ball . . .

Photo Credit Katie Brady at flickr Katie@!

“Peek Inside a Classroom” is a series about childhood trauma in public education.  Another part, “Peek Inside a Classroom: Jasmine:“ is here.  “Jasmine” defends against childhood trauma differently, completely differently, than José.  “Danny” at “Peek Inside a Classroom; Danny” uses each of their defenses at times.

The REAL Silencing of America’s Teachers!
By:  Marla Kilfoyle, Executive Director of The Badass Teachers Association

A new trend has appeared on the horizon – laws that silence teachers!  In most states teachers are not allowed to engage in political activity while in school but what has appeared in the last few months, thanks to lawmakers in Ohio and Mississippi, is frightening.

Two recent events disturbed me as an educator in America! Beware Teachers – silencing your voice is the just the tip of the iceberg

Example #1 – Ohio
HB 420 would harshly penalize teachers who even breath the word “opt out.”

Ohio School Board Member A.J. Wagner put it so eloquently on Facebook

“Amended House Bill 420 proposes to set into law these words, “No employee of a school district or public school shall negligently suggest to any student, or parent, guardian, or custodian of that student, enrolled in the district or school that the student should choose to not take any assessment prescribed by section 3301.0710 or 3301.0712 of the Revised Code.” Violation of this law is termination, loss of license, and a criminal record.

So, a teacher who says on Facebook, “These tests aren’t helping our kids;” a janitor who reports to his neighbor what he heard in the teacher’s lounge about the waste of time these tests are; a superintendent who honestly says to the PTO president who challenges the tests, “I’m only doing this because the state makes me do it, this doesn’t help your children;” a principal who testifies to a legislative committee that the tests are damaging our schools; a counselor who says to a parent of an anxiety-ridden child on the verge of a breakdown, “The testing pressure is too much for her;” a parent who works in the cafeteria and opts her son out of the tests; a school board member who votes for a resolution condemning the tests; all of these risk losing their job and can end up with a criminal record.

“Silence them!”
“Stop them before the public finds out what we’re doing!”
“Ruin their lives before they ruin our political careers with the truth!”

Let’s review.
• These tests have had no real value, at least not for student performance. They have tremendous value to testing companies.
• They cost a lot of tax dollars taken from your house budget and given to testing companies rather than classroom instruction.
• They cost significant time. Last year teachers in Ohio spent as much as 8% of their classroom time on tests.
• They cause needless, harmful angst in children who understand the high stakes placed on the outcomes.
• They cost schools the loss of good, experienced teachers, especially schools in poor communities where teachers are blamed for the poor performance of kids who come to school, hungry, stressed, sick, and beaten.
• They cost discouragement and hopelessness in impoverished communities whose houses are vacant as parents move, when they can because they’ve been told, falsely, that their schools aren’t any good.
• They are telling us that our kids are stupid when they’re not. If the scores from last year’s tests are believed, about two-thirds of Ohio’s kids are not on track for college or a career. That’s not true. But just in case, you don’t get the message, standards are being raised for next year’s test to make that point more emphatic. TWO OF THREE OHIO KIDS ARE TOO DUMB TO GO TO COLLEGE!
• These tests aren’t timely. More than half the school year is gone, and we still don’t have final scores on last year’s tests! What is a parent or teacher supposed to do when they find out, in late February, that Junior didn’t do so well? Send him back a grade?
• Education Week has moved Ohio from a state ranking of 5 to a ranking of 23 in the past two years. Ohio hasn’t seen a meaningful increase in NAEP scores in more than a decade. Last year’s NAEP scores for Ohio moved us down.
• The test results are used to terminate local control by firing elected school boards and allowing outsiders appointed by outsiders to take control of our schools. They are not just burying the Constitution; they are ending democracy.
But, don’t blame legislators who set this madness in motion. Don’t blame politicians who cut school funding. Don’t blame leaders who overlook the impact of poverty. Blame teachers, principals, superintendents, and our not-so-bright children who are too lazy to learn.
And lest they complain, silence them.


((mic drop))

Example #2 – Mississippi
Not one, but two bills to silence only K-12 teachers! No other “public” sector employees fall under the bills!  Here is an excerpt from Mississippi Education Blog that explains the framework of these bills – “Both House Bill 958 (Snowden) and House Bill 49 (Moore) are attempts on the part of our Mississippi Legislature to silence educators, superintendents, and school board members from making complaints to their representatives and from voicing their opinions on education policies to the public. Answer me this: What gives the state of Mississippi the authority to take away our First Amendment rights, provided to us by the United States Constitution?”  http://www.msedblog.net/2016/02/16/southern-penny-answer-me-this-a-mississippians-response-to-silencing/

Ironic that HB49 and HB958 are dropped after a huge fight by the Mississippi Association of Educators on “Initiative 42” (See Amanda Koonlaba’s description of 42 here http://badassteachers.blogspot.com/2015/10/initiative-42-and-attack-on-mississippi.html  ).

Ironic that Snowden is a member of  ALEC  ((NOT))
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mississippi_ALEC_Politicians

We have seen this growing trend that is attempting to silence teachers.  Diane Ravitch reported as early as 2014 that New Mexico teachers had to sign a pledge not to say anything bad about the PARCC test  http://dianeravitch.net/2014/11/29/albuquerque-parent-speaks-out-against-testing-despite-efforts-to-silence-her-and-teachers/

If a drug was bad for patients, would doctors be expected to sign a pledge not to say anything about that drug and its impact on his/her patients?

The Silencing of America’s Teachers

A scary trend in America!

My colleagues - Will this wake us up?

Eva, Rick, and Mercury LLC: Damage Control Strategies for Abusive Teaching and Water Poisoning

By:  Dr. Mitchell Robinson, Member BATs Research/Blogging Team

Originally published on his blog http://www.mitchellrobinson.net/2016/02/16/eva-rick-and-mercury-llc-damage-control-strategies-for-abusive-teaching-and-water-poisoning/

Today’s Lessons…


1. Abusive teaching behavior has been documented multiple times at Eva Moskowitz’s “Success Academy” charter school network. Ms. Moskowitz never denies these abuses happened—she simply attacks the newspaper or journalist who reported the abuses.

2. The PR firm handling Ms. Moskowitz’s damage control here is none other than Mercury LLP—the same spin doctors retained by Michigan’s Governor Rick Snyder to handle the damage control for Mr. Snyder’s bungling of the Detroit Public Schools and Flint water poisoning scandals.

3. When caught abusing or poisoning children, hire Mercury LLP. They are the masters at deflecting, obstructing and distracting. Notice how we are only now starting to hear about lead poisoning in other cities and states? This is Mercury’s strategy to make it seem like Flint isn’t the only place this stuff is happening, and Success Academy isn’t the only school where teachers raise their voices.

How about instead of governors and charter school leaders spending millions on slick PR firms to cover their tracks, they spend that money on the children in their charge?  How about spending that money on replacing the lead pipes in Flint, Mr. Governor, instead of on hiring a high-priced PR firm in a lame attempt to salvage your reputation. And how about spending that money on professional development for teachers in Success Academy schools on how to treat their students with respect instead of on retaining a firm that specializes in lobbying and damage control for clients who find themselves in "difficult situations"?

Hawaii public schools bedeviled by tyranny of testing, inadequate funds




By: Hawaii BAT  Mireille Christianne Ellsworth

Published in the February 14, 2016 edition of The Honolulu Star Advertiser 

Mireille Ellsworth has taught English and drama at Waiakea High School in Hilo for nearly 12 years and in Guam for six years.



Supporting Senate Bill 2586, the Schools Our Keiki Deserve Omnibus Education Act, means creating a dedicated fund to transform public education in Hawaii.

A 1-percentage-point increase in the general excise tax is such a small price to pay when we are uplifting our whole state through this initiative.

Currently, students are suffering under a competitive model of education that does not take into consideration the needs of each child.

As a classroom teacher, I have seen decreasing motivation and lower skills in my students with each passing year.

>> Damaging decisions like “Furlough Fridays” cheated students out of weeks of classroom instruction.

>> Not maintaining teacher salaries to match the cost of living is driving teachers to quit, leaving students with full-time substitute teachers or emergency hires.

>> Ranking schools by test scores is a competitive and punitive model of education. Students have told me they just faked their way through the test and felt bad about themselves for not doing better, but they know the test doesn’t count on their grades.

When the results are finally released, teachers don’t have those students anymore and cannot address the issues anyway.

>> Teachers are told to “step it up” with fewer resources and are being subjected to a new teacher evaluation system, which is not helping them improve their craft and is sucking valuable time needed for lesson planning and evaluating student work. Teachers are not even allowed to see the test upon which their evaluation is partially based.

>> Students and parents are being lied to that the Common Core standards are increasing critical thinking.

At my school, we have had to remove complex literature from the curriculum that demanded students use higher-level thinking skills, like inference, and replace it with nonfiction.

Instead of studying poetry, students are asked to find “textual evidence” in articles, which is basically “finding the answer in the book,” not “reading between the lines,” which requires way more complex thought processes.

>> My colleagues in the content areas are shocked at how little students know about science and social studies entering high school.

Imagine, students are lacking in social studies, the very foundation of citizenship. Wrongly, it’s all about the reading, writing and math scores. Completing an argumentative essay in one sitting for a test on a topic you have never thought about before is unrealistic and not even what college courses are like.

We must end high-stakes testing and get back to what educational research tells us, instead of cheating our children because of test preparation and what a textbook company’s salesperson is pitching.

The mantra so heavily publicized for all students to be college and career ready is propaganda.

We have lost vocational programs in this state, and students who are not geared to academic-oriented careers are either leaving high school without any marketable skills or going to college without a goal, and not finishing either, because it’s too expensive or they were aimless and not motivated.

Then they have student loans to repay and are in crippling debt that will further discourage them from trying to build a secure life for themselves.

Anyone who feels that there is something more important to fund than education is short-sighted.

Social ills we are trying to address can be prevented by young people having a wonderful childhood and fabulous opportunities in their lives as young adults. It’s time we stop mouthing how important our children are and give them the support they deserve for the hope of a secure future.