Trauma. I am very fortunate, while I have had some harrowing experiences for sure, my experience with truly traumatic events is very limited. I do not suffer from any form of PTSD, for that I am grateful. However, this puts me in a difficult situation with my students who have suffered trauma. I can never truly empathize with them. I can sympathize and I can be concerned, but I cannot truly empathize. And because of this, trauma is an area that I need to research more in order to become trauma-informed. I think (and I am sure my FSL will agree) I can recognize trauma and I recognize that I am not the person to help with that, but I can certainly find someone who can help. That is important as well. I am not a licensed therapist, I am a classroom teacher. While I completely understand that I am a front line worker and children might feel comfortable in speaking to me and sharing “scary” stuff with me, I also acknowledge that I am not trained in this manner and I will always defer, while honouring the student’s trust, to people more qualified than me.
Side Note: If you would like to send the University of Lethbridge a quick email stating that you think all pre-service teachers should have access to a counselling course or two, I would be grateful. I have tried, I need more voices requesting this. As teachers, we are front line workers and we need to be ready with the right words to say when a child comes to us sharing traumatic events. They trust us as their teacher to say and do the right thing. We should be trained properly for that inevitability.
Something I had not thought of was an analogy that Jody used in the video. If the experience is coded in terror there will be residual effects that may be detrimental to that child. But the experience might not be coded in terror. This was very interesting to me - an experience at a refugee camp doesn’t have to be traumatic. That. Didn’t. Even. Occur. To. Me. I find this amazing and it only makes sense. If the event is coded in terror it is traumatic. For example, I love thunderstorms! I pull up a seat in front of our living room picture window and I watch, fascinated. My daughter and her dog, the complete opposite. Thunderstorms are traumatizing for both of them, so much that I can no longer enjoy the thunderstorm because I am worried about how they are feeling.
Suspensions...frowny face. I wish they didn’t happen. The comment was made that in the olden days you would have to go home and on the days you were suspended you were picking rocks at first light and still picking an hour after sundown and you would have been lucky to get a lunch break - believe me, you didn’t get suspended twice. Now, mom can’t take the day off of work so you get to sit at home eating Captain Crunch and playing Fortnite dreaming up ways to get suspended again for another great holiday. I love Jody’s line that “suspensions are the pipeline to prison,” well not that I love that - but just re-read that quote and think about it. When our children do something so bad that the administration believes they should be suspended, do we not hear that cry for help? One of my students this year was suspended. He did something very bad - bad enough that the police were called in. He spent three days at home, was he “cured” of his deplorable behaviour when he came back? Absolutely not. Was there someone waiting to love all over this kid when he walked into the room. I tried. I did my best to lite up for him, but honestly, it was hard. He needed someone else to invest in him, someone that could take him into a new, clean context and create something positive with him. In my school, my principal will sometimes put up a list of students who have been identified as needing a mentor. A special someone who actively searches them out and is genuinely concerned about them on a regular basis. That is what we did for this boy. An EA who didn’t normally work with him or our class sought him out and asked him to shoot hoops - his all-time favourite activity and also just shoot the breeze. That is what he needed. Connection. It was lacking at home, we needed to provide it at school.
I believe we have taken the first tentative steps down the road to recognizing mental health issues, their causes and how they can be managed. But we have a long way to go. The more people who speak about their struggles, the more people will realize that they are not alone. I will never forget when I was a brand new mom I was feeling guilty for not wanting to be around my child. I didn’t have postpartum depression, I was just a new mom and sometimes it is very overwhelming. I remember going to a Mom’s Morning Out, a coffee time in our local church basement for stay at home moms. There was a mom there who was about five years ahead of me in the parenting department. I heard her say, “Oh ya, I’ve pictured them [her children] flying through the living room window more than once.” Please understand this is one of the most loving, caring mothers I have ever met and I often seek out her advice on parenting. I was so relieved when she said that, I felt like I wasn’t alone, that what I was feeling was somehow “normal.” I think that is why we need to keep having conversations around mental health - people need to know they are not alone, and that there are people and programs that can help them.
That's My View, From the 86th Pew,
Michelle
Side Note: If you would like to send the University of Lethbridge a quick email stating that you think all pre-service teachers should have access to a counselling course or two, I would be grateful. I have tried, I need more voices requesting this. As teachers, we are front line workers and we need to be ready with the right words to say when a child comes to us sharing traumatic events. They trust us as their teacher to say and do the right thing. We should be trained properly for that inevitability.
Something I had not thought of was an analogy that Jody used in the video. If the experience is coded in terror there will be residual effects that may be detrimental to that child. But the experience might not be coded in terror. This was very interesting to me - an experience at a refugee camp doesn’t have to be traumatic. That. Didn’t. Even. Occur. To. Me. I find this amazing and it only makes sense. If the event is coded in terror it is traumatic. For example, I love thunderstorms! I pull up a seat in front of our living room picture window and I watch, fascinated. My daughter and her dog, the complete opposite. Thunderstorms are traumatizing for both of them, so much that I can no longer enjoy the thunderstorm because I am worried about how they are feeling.
Suspensions...frowny face. I wish they didn’t happen. The comment was made that in the olden days you would have to go home and on the days you were suspended you were picking rocks at first light and still picking an hour after sundown and you would have been lucky to get a lunch break - believe me, you didn’t get suspended twice. Now, mom can’t take the day off of work so you get to sit at home eating Captain Crunch and playing Fortnite dreaming up ways to get suspended again for another great holiday. I love Jody’s line that “suspensions are the pipeline to prison,” well not that I love that - but just re-read that quote and think about it. When our children do something so bad that the administration believes they should be suspended, do we not hear that cry for help? One of my students this year was suspended. He did something very bad - bad enough that the police were called in. He spent three days at home, was he “cured” of his deplorable behaviour when he came back? Absolutely not. Was there someone waiting to love all over this kid when he walked into the room. I tried. I did my best to lite up for him, but honestly, it was hard. He needed someone else to invest in him, someone that could take him into a new, clean context and create something positive with him. In my school, my principal will sometimes put up a list of students who have been identified as needing a mentor. A special someone who actively searches them out and is genuinely concerned about them on a regular basis. That is what we did for this boy. An EA who didn’t normally work with him or our class sought him out and asked him to shoot hoops - his all-time favourite activity and also just shoot the breeze. That is what he needed. Connection. It was lacking at home, we needed to provide it at school.
I believe we have taken the first tentative steps down the road to recognizing mental health issues, their causes and how they can be managed. But we have a long way to go. The more people who speak about their struggles, the more people will realize that they are not alone. I will never forget when I was a brand new mom I was feeling guilty for not wanting to be around my child. I didn’t have postpartum depression, I was just a new mom and sometimes it is very overwhelming. I remember going to a Mom’s Morning Out, a coffee time in our local church basement for stay at home moms. There was a mom there who was about five years ahead of me in the parenting department. I heard her say, “Oh ya, I’ve pictured them [her children] flying through the living room window more than once.” Please understand this is one of the most loving, caring mothers I have ever met and I often seek out her advice on parenting. I was so relieved when she said that, I felt like I wasn’t alone, that what I was feeling was somehow “normal.” I think that is why we need to keep having conversations around mental health - people need to know they are not alone, and that there are people and programs that can help them.
That's My View, From the 86th Pew,
Michelle
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