2 views on trauma and what children need
Let us compare and contrast the thinking of Bruce Perry and the thinking of Keith Posley’s mother.
We’re making a mistake when we blame schools and teachers for why so many kids growing up in high-stress situations are not doing well when it comes to education, Perry told an impressive gathering Wednesday night.
The failure of so many to do well is rooted in the circumstances of their lives and the traumas, big and small, that shape them, from their earliest months onward, Perry said. Research shows the impact of poverty, overwhelmed parents, unstable living situations, segregation by race and income, and other things.
“It’s all related to relationships,” Perry said. Healthy relationships can buffer children from the stresses on their lives. The traumas of life actually change the brains of children in ways that make educational success harder, while dealing with those stresses in better ways can make children more resilient.
Perry spoke to more than 1,000 people
— it seemed like almost everybody in the Milwaukee area who deals with helping kids — at Fiserv Forum. His talk led into two days of sessions in a conference at the nearby Wisconsin Center titled, “Healing Trauma, Healthy Communities.”
Perry is a nationally respected expert on these subjects, with both M.D. and Ph.D degrees, author of hundreds of academic works, a founder of the Child Trauma Academy, based in Houston, and a professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University.
Keith Posley’s mother
Keith Posley’s mother had a sixthgrade education and 10 kids. There was no father sharing her home in rural Mississippi. The roof leaked. Poverty was a way of life.
“My mom was a champion for education, my first teacher,” Posley, the interim superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, said during an “On the Issues with Mike Gousha” program at
Marquette Law School, also on Wednesday.
“One of the things that she always said (was), ‘You’re going to be better than I am, you’re going to go to school, you’re going to accomplish, you’re going to do great things,” Posley said. “So I went to do just that.”
Posley’s mother died of breast cancer when he was 15. He said, “It was teachers who said, ‘OK there’s been a bump in the road, but there’s work to be done.’” So he worked, and moved forward, and succeeded.
In response to questions from the audience about his approach to the social and emotional needs of children, Posley, who is in his early 50s, said things are different now than when he was in school and you were taught in traditional ways.
“Relationships are key,” he said. “You have to love young people to work with young people.” MPS is going to do more to help with the trauma-related needs of students, he said.
It’s time for change. That means kids need more when it comes to helping hands . ... They need to be pushed from behind as well as pulled from in front.
‘There was an expectation’
But in his own childhood, “I knew all the teachers who didn’t care for me. My mom said to me, ‘Hey, I’m not sending you to school to have a love affair. I’m sending you to school to learn.’ There was an expectation.”
I think what Perry is saying is important and should shape policy and action aimed at helping the have-not kids of America thrive.
We all know how several decades of effort to change schools and academic programs haven’t had much broad positive impact.
The problems of the 1990s in terms of “achievement gaps” and such are almost exactly the problems of today. It seems high time to focus on boosting children’s lives and relationships and character strengths.
But I also think that the voice of Keith Posley’s mother needs to be heard. High expectations. Not using circumstances as an explanation for failure. Parents as the first teachers. Even, “I’m not sending you to school to have a love affair. I’m sending you to school to learn.”
What could and should unite these seemingly differing views?
Constructive, energized commitments to get children on paths to solid lives as adults. Ready for the work world, ready to lead stable adult lives, ready to be good members of their communities.
I’m tired of the gaps, I’m tired of the low levels of success of kids from lowincome homes. A big wave of data on the performance of Wisconsin students and schools is going to be released by the state Department of Public Instruction on Tuesday.
I don’t know what it shows, but I’m not optimistic. Why should I be when little has changed and the problems have been so fixed for so long?
Time for change
It’s time for change. That means kids need more when it comes to helping hands.
They need people who put their arms around them, people who listen to them, people who convince them they have value and their futures matter, people who will help deal with the difficult things life dealt them, people who will open their eyes to bright horizons.
They also need to have strong senses of what is expected of them, strong senses of what it’s going to be like when they reach college and the work world where not being up to par with so many others when it comes to matters such as reading are going to make their paths difficult.
They need to be pushed from behind as well as pulled from in front.
In my mind, everyone has a part in this, including parents, relatives, neighbors — and teachers and school leaders. And political leaders. And all of us.
Why don’t do more to make what is said by both Bruce Perry and Keith Posley’s mother wisdom that we live by?
Alan J Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.