Studies have documented the connection between childhood trauma, and chronic disease and mental illness later in life. Some public schools in Maine are paying more attention to the impacts these experiences can have on student success. These schools are helping students identify — and cope with — the stressors that are effecting their lives.
Waterville High School teacher Sherry Brown sees her students differently than she did several years ago. That's when she first learned about "adverse childhood experiences" and the lasting ill effects they can have on future health, relationships, and chances for success.
"I'm interested personally in making students capable human beings who can go out, and you know, create healthy lives for themselves beyond anything that has happened to them in the past," says Brown.
And research shows that what's happened to them in the past, from negligence to emotional, physical and sexual abuse, can program their brains into a perpetual fight-or-flight mode, affecting their ability to learn.
Brown says that once she began to understand how students were affected by childhood trauma, she became more empathetic, and open to the idea of helping students develop resilience to toxic stress.
[For more of this story go to http://news.mpbn.net/post/inno...hood-trauma#stream/0]
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