Blog

By Jessica Grose, The New York Times, October 20, 2021 I have heard from many readers and friends that their kids are struggling to adjust to in-person schooling this year. For the little ones, there’s more separation anxiety, which means more tears at drop-off, and struggles to even get out the door. For older children and teens, I’m hearing that some previously motivated kids are less engaged. Perhaps they fell behind during remote learning and feel discouraged now that they’re back in the...

Often, we are confronted with dehumanizing practices in education settings -- practices that cause trauma, induce shame, and contribute to the adversity that many children and adults already face. Practices that push us away from our better selves, and strip others of their dignity and humanity. Practices and institutions that punish, harm, exclude, degrade, dismiss, disrespect, and disregard. Educators and students alike have experienced being dehumanized in their school environments at...

Please join us for our new series Education Upended: Talking Out of Turn . This monthly series will feature a conversation facilitated by Lara Kain, PACEsConnection Education Consultant , with special guests on education related current events and hot topics. We will use a trauma-informed and PACEs science aware lens to examine what is going on K-12 education, what needs changing, and strategies being used in the field to disrupt harmful policies and make positive changes in the system.

Did you know that societal inequities can impact a person's long-term health outcomes? Marginalization is the exclusion of a disadvantaged person or group to the fringe of society. It results in individuals being overlooked when laws, policies, and practices are established that protect the privileged class, and leads to adverse community environments--such as poverty, poor housing, and lack of mobility--that promote fertile ground for structural violence and harm, including racism and...

After educators’ experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, a 2014 approach to school health has gained even greater urgency. Under this model, a student's physical health is considered to be inseparable from their mental and social health. Moreover, it assumes that school climate, family engagement, community involvement, and, importantly, the health of school staff are all integral to the health of students. Researchers with ChildTrends recently released a report using metrics based on this...

By Evelyn Johnson, Alan Pesky, and Claudia Aulum, Stanford Social Innovation Review, October 6, 2021 As our education systems move from scrambling to adapt to school closures and distance learning towards something approaching normality, many are asking questions about how to recover what was lost. How have children been impacted by this unprecedented gap in their learning? Will there be long-term effects? Will they suffer socially and emotionally from the “ COVID slide ”? And what can be...

By Terry Brooks, Courier-Journal, October 7, 2021 Is that the best we’ve got for our kids? Knee-jerk and wrong-headed proposals. Courageous young people giving voice to the issues at hand in the middle of a school board meeting . Bold leadership from our superintendent. And a puzzling mix of regressive and promising policy proposals from Metro Council leadership. Thus is the landscape of Louisville as we grieve the tragic murder of Tyree Smith . And as we reflect upon the Louisville...

By Lily Bohkle, Dig Boston, October 6, 2021 With the new school year in full swing, a new report from the Sentencing Project outlines key steps Massachusetts and other states could take to end what they call the school-to-prison pipeline. A number of districts in the Commonwealth employ police officers in schools, known as school resource officers. Leon Smith, executive director of Citizens for Juvenile Justice, said there is little evidence the presence of a police officer improves school...

By Terry Brooks, Courier-Journal, October 7, 2021 Is that the best we’ve got for our kids? Knee-jerk and wrong-headed proposals. Courageous young people giving voice to the issues at hand in the middle of a school board meeting . Bold leadership from our superintendent. And a puzzling mix of regressive and promising policy proposals from Metro Council leadership. Thus is the landscape of Louisville as we grieve the tragic murder of Tyree Smith . And as we reflect upon the Louisville...

By Emily Elena Dugdale and Irena Hwang, ProPublica, September 29, 2021 Barron Gardner, a high school history teacher in Southern California’s Antelope Valley, stared down Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies during an online meeting in April, trying to keep his composure. Gardner, 41, had become a reluctant spokesperson for a growing movement, driven primarily by Black and Latino residents, to get LASD deputies off school campuses. His wife, who's also a teacher, worried about...

Building SEL and MHL are both critical to improving school mental health. According to recent discussions with thought-leaders at PBIS, it is recommended that SEL is integrated following school mental health and school wide positive behavior supports (Weist et al, 2018). We are missing the boat if we are excluding Mental Health Literacy (MHL) and mental health education training.

No doubt about it, things are tough for all of us, and educators need a place and space to humanize and normalize what we are all experiencing. Dovetail Learning is hosting another Educator Resilience Circle starting Wednesday Oct. 13th (3:30pm PST/6:30 EST) each week for 55minutes to support you with non-evaluative coaching in our We Are Resilient™ framework. We invite you to jump in and join this opportunity to meet colleagues and get time with me, Coach Bryan :) Educator Resilience Circle...