Redesigning how we educate our educators

Imagine walking into a classroom with an average amount of chaos that begins each school day. Students start to gradually settle down and take their seats and an argument escalates toward the back of the classroom. A boy named Jordan is screaming and shoving his neighbor. You notice his tattered shirt and the stress in his eyes; however, your priority is to break up the fight and restore a positive learning environment, so you send Jordan to the principal’s office to restore order and begin today’s lesson.What you don’t know is that Jordan and his mother have been living out of their car, and he hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in over a month. Jordan is in survival mode–a persistent state of fight or flight that is controlled by the primal brain stem function. Because learning takes place in the cerebral cortex, he is unable to learn when in this mindset.As educators, we are called to this profession. We want to make a difference in children’s lives. However, most traditional training doesn’t adequately prepare us for teaching students like Jordan–students in trauma.