Trauma Doesn't Stop at the School Door: Strategies and Solutions for Educators, PreK-College

by Karen Gross

Overview

This book explores how educational institutions have failed to recognize and effectively address the symptoms of trauma in students of all ages. Given the prevalence of traumatic events in our world, Gross argues that it is time for educational institutions and those who work within them to change their approaches and responses to traumatic symptoms that manifest in students in schools and colleges. These changes can alter how and what we teach, how we train teachers, how we structure our calendars and create our schedules, how we address student behavior and disciplinary issues, and how we design our physical space. Drawing on real-life examples and scenarios that will be familiar to educators, this resource provides concrete suggestions to assist institutions in becoming trauma-responsive environments, including replicable macro and micro changes.

“Ideas and strategies that teachers, parents, students, and leaders of any organization can leverage to make positive transformational changes.”
—Martha J. Kanter, U.S. under secretary of education (2009–2013)

“A treasure trove of information on trauma, as well as thoughtful recommendations for schools from pre–K through college.”
—Kathleen Ross, president emeritus, Heritage University

“It is a book for the ‘Generation T’ in the context of our time. Offers strategies of quieting the hyper-aroused stress response system.
—Ed K.S. Wang, Massachusetts General Hospital

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807778678
Publisher:	Teachers College Press
Publication date:	06/19/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Karen Gross is an author and educator as well as an advisor and consultant to nonprofit schools, organizations, and governments; instructor of continuing education at Rutgers Graduate School of Social Work; visiting professor at Bennington College; former president of Southern Vermont College; former senior policy advisor to the United States Department of Education; and author of the sidequel, Breakaway Learners: Strategies for Post-Secondary Success with At-Risk Students and the trauma-sensitive children’s book series, Lady Lucy’s Quest. Visit the Karen's website at www.karengrosseducation.com

Table of Contents

Contents (Tentative)

Preface
Scope and Coverage
Structure and Approach
A Trigger Warning

Acknowledgments

Part I: Naming

1. What Is Trauma?
At Least We Can Agree That . . .
On These We Should Agree
The Word Itself
The Medical Definition
A Psychological Definition
Trauma and Traumatic Responses
A Flawed Distinction
An Alternate Approach
Definitional Diversity
A Definition for the Educational Context
Assessment Devices and Definitions of Trauma
ACEs
ACEs Caveats
Educators

2. Trauma in Action
Scenario 1
Scenario 2
Scenario 3
Small e Events
Small e Event Reactions
There Are Solutions
Transferred Trauma
Next Steps
What About Those Anniversaries?
Dealing with Trauma Anniversaries
Planning, Teachable Moments, and Control
Kent State and New York Law School
Some Lessons
Material Goods as Memorials
Tangible Evidence
Onward

3. Acute Symptomology Is Autonomic
First Appearances
Acute Symptomology
Nervous Systems
The Three Fs
The F Words
What Happens to Our Bodies?
The Autonomic Nervous System in Action
The Impact of Repetitive Acute Symptomology
Adult Physiological Responses

4. It’s Actually Triphasic
The “Traditional” Delayed Divide
But There’s More: Think Tri
Story 1: It Is Dark at Night
Story 2: A Change of Teachers
What the Stories Tell Us
Chapter 5: Secondary and Vicarious Trauma
Concrete Exemplars
A Personal Story over Time

Part II: Taming

6. Finding Solutions
Where and How to Begin
Benefits of Allostatic Load Lifting
Breakaway Learners, Baseball, and Trauma
Name It Then Tame It
Trauma Terms
Change Doesn’t Have to Be Uniform
Change Won’t Be Easy
Trauma Matters

7. Change on the Horizon
Lessons from Smoking and Civil Rights
Context Counts
Nine Factors Toward a Tipping Point
Amalgamation and Associations
Pivoting Right
Who Isn’t Responsible?
Who Is Responsible?
Finding the Trauma Lens
Collaboration?
Macro Change
Micro Change
The Six Ts and Breakaway Learners

8. The Trauma-Responsive School
A Caveat
Why Deconstructing the Ideal Is Key
The Ideal Trauma-Responsive School
The Five Ss
Values

9. Deconstruction I: Macro Changes
Space and Place
Play Table
The Role of the Educator and Secondary or Vicarious Trauma
Antifragmentation
Punishment and Discipline
The Center and Truth
Macro Changes and the Brain

10. Deconstruction II: Micro Changes
Transitions
Use of the Senses
Materials on the Walls
Rovers and Pop-Ups
Teams and Teamwork
Implementing Change

Part III: Framing

11. What Is a Frame?
The Definition of Generation T
The Meaning of Generation T
Frames, Framing, and Framed
What Is Trauma’s Frame?
Other Frames
The Generation T Frame

12. Conclusion: Having Hope
New Research
The Powerful Positives
Unanswered Questions
PCEs and Trauma-Responsive Institutions
The Need for Empiricism
Rising Tides
Endings and Beginnings

Notes

Further Readings

Index

About the Author

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Karen Gross has authored a remarkable book that paves the way for each of us to become trauma-responsive in our own lives and in the daily life and future of the schools, institutions, and communities in which we live and work. This book is both scholarly and practical, enabling us better to understand the research, evidence, and effects of trauma and the positive steps we can take to address its many impacts. She offers us extraordinary insights and solutions to build and sustain safe, thriving environments that can reduce both the frequency of traumatic incidents and traumatic stress on individuals and communities. The book is a treasure trove of ideas and strategies that teachers, parents, students, and leaders of any organization can leverage to make positive transformational changes across the nation.”
—Martha J. Kanter, Executive Director, College Promise Campaign; U.S. under secretary of education (2009–2013)

“Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door is a treasure trove of information on trauma as well as thoughtful recommendations for schools, from pre–K through college, to counteract negative consequences of trauma in their students. Both very readable and comprehensive, the book contains big picture solutions, like re-designed school layouts, and is a gold mine of practical ideas for any educator to lessen trauma’s effect on learning. Dr. Gross utilizes her own experiences and those of others to unfold a convincing scenario for more effective schools in our trauma-affected era. I heartily recommend this book to today’s colleges of teacher education, as well as educators everywhere.”
—Kathleen Ross, President Emeritus and Professor of Cross-Cultural Communication, Heritage University

“This book is highly recommended to all educators and administrators who are interested in understanding the association of trauma and the autonomic nervous system as well as exploring strategies on policy, program, and practice in trauma-responsive education. It is a book for the ‘Generation T’ in the context of our time. The book offers strategies for quieting the hyper-aroused stress response system.”
—Ed K.S. Wang, M.S., Psy.D., Massachusetts General Hospital

“Most educators right now only know that trauma exists. But we don’t know what it looks like, how it impacts students, or how to help students find a pathway through it. So our response is to do little or nothing about it. No more. With Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door, Dr. Gross helps educators and student advocates become trauma-aware and charts a course for teachers and schools to become trauma-responsive.”
—G. Gill Hunter, professor, Eastern Kentucky University

“Karen Gross gives her readers perspectives and resources that should be added to every teacher’s toolbox in order to move beyond the delivery of content and become more cognizant of obstacles that can affect learners under their charge. A must-read for anyone that practices the art of teaching.”
—Ivan Figueroa, educational consultant

“Applying the principles from Trauma Doesn't Stop at the School Door to my work as a teacher in a trauma-sensitive elementary school has transformed the way I think, plan, and teach my learners. Karen Gross gives all educators the necessary tools to facilitate student success.”
—Allyson Hoffman, library media specialist, Molly Stark Elementary School, Bennington, VT

“Books about trauma often treat it as though it only happens to certain people in certain situations, such as living in a violent neighborhood or serving in a war. Gross asserts that many children and adults—far more than we know or count—have experienced some form of trauma. Because trauma in our society lives in the shadows, is rarely discussed, is often misunderstood, and is actively hidden, we often misread the sequelae of trauma. Karen Gross’ book offers a light in the darkness. If we apply her model to our learners’ recovery, we will not solve or eliminate COVID-induced trauma, but we will go a long way toward helping individuals heal, even as they re-learn and reclaim their resilience over time.”
—Marie A. Cini, chief strategy officer, ED2WORK

Editorial Reviews

"Gross has simplified one of the most complex systemic challenges of our times: to be intentionally trauma-responsive and change the course of students’ lives by changing the educational system."

—Teachers College Record

“Drawing on real-life examples and scenarios that will be familiar to educators, Trauma Doesn't Stop at the School Door provides concrete suggestions to assist institutions in becoming trauma-responsive environments, including replicable macro- and microchanges.”

—Sir Read a Lot

From the Publisher