I'm a well known skeptic when it comes to widespread professional development, conferences, books, and speaking tours that come from research or groups primarily outside of the classroom. Even the 'best practices' that actually do come from practicing educators are often shared from such a specific cultural or economic lens that their skyrocketing fame across all types of schools is truly baffling at best and harmful at worst.
So is 'trauma-informed' just one more thing teachers must learn to appease the distributed content Gods? The answer before COVID-19 was not really. Michelle Benedict, our guest this week, shares years and years of experience as both a student and teacher with trauma long before it was a broad conversation. She makes a compelling case for why this isn't another box to be checked and how teachers who assume trauma isn't a problem in their classrooms could be simply mislabeling the behavior.
Of course the answer after COVID-19 is HELL NO. Whatever the debate over trauma's definition, classification, or importance in relation to other school priorities, it's hard to downplay its significance now. In fact, Michelle's concern over the largest case of PTSD in our system's history is well founded in light of the impact of COVID-19. Join us in episode 1 as we explore this topic more broadly and in part 2 as we talk specific action steps for overcoming one of the greatest professional and personal challenges any of us has ever known.