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James Baldwin’s Lesson for Teachers in a Time of Turmoil [newyorker.com]

“Let’s begin by saying that we are living through a very dangerous time.” So opens “A Talk to Teachers,” which James Baldwin delivered to a group of educators in October, 1963. (He published it in the Saturday Review the following December.) That year, Medgar Evers, a leading civil-rights figure and N.A.A.C.P. state field director, was murdered in his driveway by a white supremacist in Jackson, Mississippi. That year, four young girls—Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and...

How Severe, Ongoing Stress can Affect a Child's Brain [Associated Press via kstp.com]

A quiet, unsmiling little girl with big brown eyes crawls inside a carpeted cubicle, hugs a stuffed teddy bear tight, and turns her head away from the noisy classroom. The safe spaces, quiet times and breathing exercises for her and the other preschoolers at the Verner Center for Early Learning are designed to help kids cope with intense stress so they can learn. But experts hope there's an even bigger benefit — protecting young bodies and brains from stress so persistent that it becomes...

As Its Homeless Student Population Surges, Perkins K-8 Is Learning to Adapt [voiceofsandiego.org]

At one point last school year, homeless students made up a third of the Barrio Logan school’s total enrollment. Fernando Hernandez, the principal at Perkins K-8, makes sure his middle school teachers don’t put too much weight on homework. Hernandez caps the percentage of grades drawn from homework at 15 percent, which he says is lower than many middle schools. Though many schools and parents across the country have argued in recent years that schools should de-emphasize homework, Hernandez...

2017 Children's Mental Health Report

Of the 74.5 million children in the United States, an estimated 17.1 million have or have had a mental health disorder — more than the number of children with cancer, diabetes and AIDS combined. Half of all mental illness occurs before the age of 14, and 75 percent by the age of 24. In spite of the magnitude of the problem, lack of awareness and entrenched stigma keep the majority of these young people from getting help. Children and adolescents struggling with these disorders are at risk...

Vinnie Pompei wants you to know that we're all biased, and we can work with that [edsource.org]

Vincent “Vinnie” Pompei is director of the Youth Well-Being Project of the Human Rights Campaign, a national civil rights organization, and the chair of Time to Thrive, an annual national conference about LGBT student inclusion. He spent more than 10 years as a middle school teacher and high school counselor in the Paramount and Val Verde unified school districts in Southern California. Pompei is also a past president of the California Association of School Counselors. On Oct. 5 at the...

From Suspension to Support in the Early Grades [chdi.org]

Connecticut has been at the forefront of the national movement to reduce suspensions and expulsions of young children in recent years. School suspensions and expulsions can be harmful for children, particularly in the earliest grades. When a young child’s challenging behavior is met with exclusionary discipline rather than behavioral health support they are at greater risk for negative outcomes in the areas of social-emotional development, behavior, health, and education. In 2015,...

Trauma Informed Education Training

We have a few trainings going on. Here are the links in case anyone is interested. We are doing the one day trauma sensitive schools training in Wisconsin the first week in October. Here is the link https://www.pesi.com/events/detail/56985/trauma-sensitive-schools-improving-educational-and . We are very excited about our 8 session webinar series on creating a trauma informed school. Here is the link for that...

The Importance of Training Teachers to Better Understand Their Native Students [yesmagazine.org]

"Native American students make up 1.4 percent of the students in Washington state public schools. And they have the lowest graduation rate of any ethnic group, with just 56.4 percent earning a high school diploma in four years. “I was that young person, I dropped out of school. I was one of those statistics of Native women dropouts,” says Dawn Hardison-Stevens, who is a member of the Steilacoom Tribal Council. Hardison-Stevens, who at the time was a young mother with a 3-year-old and a...

Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement (jesselewischooselove.org)

Compassion takes on a whole new level of meaning when something momentously destructive and painful happens in your life, and you have to find a pathway forward. Scarlett Lewis' six year-old son, Jesse, was murdered in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting. She had to dig unbelievably deeply into her well of compassion to be able to move forward with her life. Scarlett says she knew she had a choice - to be a victim for the rest of her life, or to chart a new way forward. She chose love.

How Lessons From Abroad Are Uplifting Youth In the United States [RWJF.org]

Like many high school graduates in Brazil, Caroline was eager to find a job. She desperately needed money to continue her studies and pursue her dream of becoming an engineer. But two years after graduating, she was still unemployed. Caroline eventually managed to improve her job prospects in an unlikely way—through drawing, dance and breath work. Intent on breaking free from a family history of women who weren’t able to get good jobs or finish high school, Caroline discovered a job training...

Houston Students Are Heading Back — What They Find Could Change Schools Nationwide (npr.org)

Belva Parrish, the counselor at Wilson and a 25-year veteran of Houston's public schools, says the pet update on the school's Facebook page was one small way schools can help students heal. "Trauma stems from not having any control of your situation," she says. "Banding together, being a place where students feel safe and they know they have a voice to be heard, will go a long way towards helping them." Leaders are positioning public schools as the place to address students' needs from the...

New York City has the biggest school system in the country. It just made lunch free. (upworthy.com)

At a Sept. 6 press conference, Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina announced that the city's "Free School Lunch for All" program, currently available to 75% of New York City public school students, will be made available to every student in the system beginning this academic year. "Free School Lunch for All will provide financial relief to families and ensure all students are receiving nutritious meals so that they can succeed in the classroom and beyond," Farina said. New York City joins...

Meet The Startup Healing Trauma One Text At A Time [Forbes.com]

Photo: Ashley Edwards and Alina Liao at UC Berkeley School of Business after winning 2nd place at the 2016 Global Social Innovation Competition. In 2016, the 30 largest cities in the United States experienced a double-digit increase in violent crime. From reports of shootings in Chicago to gang-related violence in LA , the media is constantly flooded with stories of violence in our urban communities. The effect this has is numbing: most of the time, one doesn’t stop to think of the lives...

Houston Teachers Drafted to Become Trauma Counselors [dailybeast.com]

As Houston ’s school district of more than 200,000 students scrambles to repair damaged schools before classes begin next week, they must also plan for traumatized students to enter the classroom. The Houston Independent School District is in the process of working with counsellors, nurses and social workers to develop a “mental health recovery plan” for the district’s hardest hit schools, according to a statement from HISD. In the meantime, Mental Health America of Greater Houston and...

Rising High: Los Angeles School Aimed at Disconnected Youth Expands [ChronicleOfSocialChange.org]

When high school student Kia Reid’s brother was arrested, she withdrew emotionally, missing more than a week of school. But in her absence, Reid didn’t fall through the cracks. Her teachers texted and called to check on her. “They told me [they were] not here to pressure me, but they wanted me to keep on track with my schoolwork.,” Reid said. “They were really patient, and even came over to my house and brought me my work and went over all [of it] with me.” Reid graduated in the spring with...

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