We Have Trouble Using the Word “Trauma:” and That’s Not Good
Trauma abounds and it is affecting adults and children. Trauma has a negative impact on educational outcomes, family functionality, workplace effectiveness, community engagement and health outcomes. In the absence of our attention to this topic, the symptomology will persist; known and effective strategies for managing (not eliminating) trauma will not be deployed systemically or systematically.
Among the many problems surrounding trauma, its symptomology and our response to it is that we don’t like or want to use the word “trauma.” For me, if you cannot name it, then you cannot tame it and if you cannot tame it, you cannot frame it — a term I use to mean to draw attention to trauma and its ubiquity. We need to have people see it, deal with it and recognize its importance.
A Teacher’s Suggestion (without a name):
It is in that light that I read this fine article by an elementary school educator about how to help students whose autonomic nervous systems are on high alert to calm down and use their learning capacities. The theory is right: when our lower brain takes over, our higher brain doesn’t function. So, when children are unable to cognate, their lower brain is in charge and the students can become disregulated or isolated or over-regulated.
But in the entire article, filled with strategies, the words trauma and trauma symptomology do not appear. Here’s the article:
Why does it matter if we don’t use the words “trauma” and “trauma symptomology?” Why is naming so important? Just insert strategies and deal with their benefits, just like this teacher did. He had a useful technique and he used and shared it.
Not All Student Problems Have the Same Root Cause:
Here’s the problem. What is causing students to be upset matters. Distinguishing between causes affects solution choices and outcomes. There are many behaviors in adults and children that are trauma driven; but, in some instances, the issues presented aren’t trauma related. There could be some physical or mental illness; there could be vast learning differences that are brain related; there might be patterned behavior from poor role modeling.
Here’s the point: if you can’t name it, you can’t tame it. Lowering the autonomic nervous system helps traumatized children and adults. I write about this all the time and provide exercises and activities that help enable the lower brain and the flight, flight, freeze (and flock) responses to calm down. But, if we don’t know the why for the behavior and the other longer term strategies, we are failing to address the problem in any systematic or lasting way. We are short-circuiting how to deal with trauma and enable lasting benefits from our interventions. When the students leave this teacher and this classroom, the strategy doesn’t go with them.
Yes, it is true that helping kids in any way that enables learning is good. Yes indeed. But it is not good enough.
Non-Education Examples to Drive Home the Point:
Think about it this way. Suppose one’s car never starts. So, to get it going, one always gets a jump start. Well, that will get the car going for sure until the next time it doesn’t go. Might it matter if the problem is the battery itself, some connective wire or some problem with the ignition?
Try this example. We can treat some medical illnesses with a surface remedy that will make the patient feel better for the moment: drugs do this. But, surely we know that diminishing pain does not eradicate the sources of the pain. We can mask the source and solve a short term medical issue but drugs don’t resolve kidney stones or tumors or broken bones.
I appreciate the teacher’s article on how to navigate students who are not in a place mentally or physically to learn. But to be clear: one strategy doesn’t solve the problem for this teacher or these students or students more generally.
Why Do We Dislike the Term “Trauma”?
Now, why are we so reluctant to use the word “trauma?” One possibility is that we don’t know what it is. That’s a realistic observation. We can address that through professional development for existing teachers and in courses for pre-professional students.
Another possibility is that we know the word “trauma” and its meaning (in a generalized sense) but we don’t like it — it is too scary, too “big,” too “bold” a categorization. In this sense, it is like the “C” word ‘cancer;’ we’d rather say anything but. We fear stigma and creating fear and drama and over-reaction.
But, if we can’t capture what is happening and name it, we lose opportunity.
At its root, trauma relates to physical wound, although it now is used way more broadly to refer to psychological and emotional wounds. https://www.etymonline.com/word/trauma. But, there is one observation some have made to the word sound: trauma’s first syllable sounds like the word “Ow” — as in it hurts. Trauma does hurt and the word is an example of onomatopoeia. It sounds like what is does: it hurts. And, when someone hurts, we would be wise and decent to care for them.
How to Heal: Naming, Taming and Framing
To start the healing process, we need to own what is hurting us. So, use the word “trauma;” don’t avoid it. It won’t hurt and it might just help. To be clear, I am not suggesting that teachers say to a young student, “Gee you are suffering from trauma I suspect.” No. The teacher isn’t a psychologist or a diagnostician. But, the teacher can say to him or herself, I think this child is experiencing trauma symptomology and I need to be aware of that and respond in trauma responsive ways. And, I need to share my observation about this child with others when we go over student progress and student learning patterns and student needs.
Bottom line: trauma means what it says: a person has been hurt and it is our job as educators to understand that hurt. We need to name it, tame it and frame it.
Note: This concept of naming, taming and framing appears in my forthcoming book from Columbia Teachers College Press (June 2020) titled Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door.
