Aug 30, 2018, Alma (MI) Morning Sun: MPPS Teachers undergo 'trauma-informed school' training https://www.themorningsun.com/news/local/mpps-teachers-undergo-trauma-informed-school-training/article_4512f166-ac5f-11e8-83ee-03a5446b6c53.html Mt. Pleasant Public Schools are equipping their teachers with knowledge on how to engage students experiencing trauma. … "We've begun a process across the district to educate our staff on how to work with students who have may have experienced or are experiencing traumatic situations," Community Education Director Kim Funnell said. The idea of this trauma-informed training is to inform the staff that the students may be acting out or disengaged in classes because of a possible Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE), according to Funnell. ACEs was first termed during a study that was done by the Center for Disease Control between 1995 and 1997. Since then, the CDC has been studying the prevalence of ACEs in the national population. The study identifies these experiences as emotional, physical and sexual abuse, as well as having a household member being incarcerated, having a mental illness and/or abusing drugs…. Survey data from 2016 indicated that 26 percent of people reporting experiencing one ACE and over 12 percent reported experiencing four or more. The study also linked the childhood traumas to poor academic achievement, early starts to harmful habits, such as smoking or drug use, and a higher risk of serious ailments, such as ischemic heart disease and liver disease, according to the CDC. A study from the National Survey of Children’s Health in 2018 reported that around 68 percent of children aged zero to 17 have experienced one or more ACEs. … "The the first layer of the training is to have the staff understand the effects of trauma in the brain with development and learning," Funnell said. "If you're in that traumatized state, you aren't able to learn."… "We found that through the years that while we have the best curriculum and a highly-educated staff, we haven't been moving that needle," she said. "Over the years, there's been a dramatic change in what kind of student has been coming to school." …
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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