How did you decide to focus on the students at Lincoln? Sadly, kids who have grown up exposed to chronic and traumatic stress often suffer neurological and physiological consequences that make it harder to learn. The teachers and administrators at Lincoln High School designed an educational approach that took that into account. Within three years, GPA, attendance and graduation rates were up, while fights, suspensions and arrests were down. That seemed like a story worth telling.
What brought you to this topic? My partner at KPJR films, Karen Pritzker, sent me the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study. This landmark study proved beyond a doubt that chronic and traumatic stress, if left untreated, dramatically increases the odds of poor health outcomes later in life. It was a real head-smacker.
As a parent, did you learn anything new about teenagers? If you honor the adult in them, often the child is dying to come out.
[For more of this story, written by Mimi Towle, go to http://www.marinmagazine.com/B...-2015/James-Redford/]
Comments (0)