Addressing Trauma's Impact on Learning Should Be Central to the Way Schools Are Run

Susan Cole, director of the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative in Cambridge, MA, and co-author of the two-volume series Helping Traumatized Children Learn, wrote this for the Huffington Post. Here's a sample:

The New York Times empathetically and articulately chronicles the travails of homeless children in its recent series "Invisible Child." Young Dasani, the centerpiece of the series, is just one of many more children than we ever imagined who are exposed to highly adverse experiences every day. 

The good news -- as Principal Holmes and the teachers at the Dasani's beloved Susan B. McKinney School demonstrate -- is that schools can help children reach their potentials despite the adversity they may have faced. Until recently, an understanding of how trauma impacts learning, behavior, and relationships at school had only been acknowledged anecdotally. But public health experts, psychologists, and neurobiologists have established an incontrovertible link that can no longer be ignored within education circles. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-cole/trauma-sensitivity-schools_b_4450488.html