Of the roughly 74 million children in the United States, just under 51 million are preK–12 public school students. Every day, 13 million of these children go hungry. A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds. And 2.7 million have a parent in prison. Our children are living in a state of emergency. How can we, as educators, expect them to learn when they are living in a constant state of fight or flight?
Even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente conducted the first study on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) from 1995 to 1997, ACEs did not gain widespread attention until 2012. Perhaps that's because ACE-related questions can make people uncomfortable. They uncover the hidden problems in families: verbal, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse; alcoholism; lack of necessities; or feelings of being unloved or neglected. These problems transcend race and socioeconomic status just as issues of mass violence, racial prejudice, and catastrophic events do. Every one of them can contribute to mental illness. How can educators help students succeed in school despite ACEs?
One way we can help is to adopt positive development and universal prevention strategies. Recognizing that many students spend more awake time at school than they do at home, we need to accept—and embrace—that our role as educators includes partnering with parents to develop the whole child, which includes a focus on social and emotional learning.
According to Hawkins and Catalano (1992), three elements help children move from risk to resiliency: a caring, nurturing environment; high expectations; and meaningful engagement. In other words, relationships, common language, and purposeful activities.
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