Behind Every Child’s “Bad” Behavior is a Story Waiting to be Told

MHTG and OSPI Push for “Compassionate Schools”

October 14, 2009

Every classroom has a child with a “behavioral” problem. It’s sometimes the withdrawn student with failing grades who rarely says anything until she or he punches someone on the playground. It’s the student who vandalizes the school or steals. Or it’s the bully who continually taunts and teases other children into tears.

Many of these students get into trouble, and are disciplined by school authorities. Yet discipline rarely “solves” the behavior or addresses the underlying reason for the behavior.

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) with support from the Mental Health Transformation Project (MHGT), are asking public schools to think “outside the box.” Instead of saying “what’s wrong with you?” and punishing children, the state is asking school officials to look beyond the behavior into their lives and ask, “what happened to you?”

“A student’s reaction to trauma in their lives can play a significant role in becoming a barrier to learning and leading to discipline problems in the school,” says OSPI Program Supervisor Ron Hertel, who oversees the state’s Readiness to Learn program focused on drop-out prevention and early intervention. “When a child is acting out, it’s usually a cry for help.” Hertel is introducing an initiative that focuses on a different philosophic approach to children with behavioral challenges called “Compassionate Schools.” School districts across Washington State are beginning to adapt this philosophy which was tested in two pilot counties, Pierce and Spokane, between April and December, 2008.

The goal of the pilot, which was conducted in 11 different schools, was twofold: to understand trauma and how it affects learning in students who’ve been exposed to traumatic events and to develop compassionate learning environments from school to school, county by county, in Washington state.

Gertrude Morrow first coined the phrase “compassionate schools” over 22 years ago in her book of the same title. “It’s an idea that lost its focus for a time and now the pendulum is swinging back. Schools are now seeing the correlation between social/emotional well being and learning and are being asked to address the needs of the whole child in partnership with families and the local community,” says Hertel. “Compassionate schools” is not a program, it’s a philosophy where teachers are being asked to look behind the child’s behavior and academic failure into what stands in their way of being successful in school. Often times, it is rooted in what is going on in the life of the child outside of school as it relates to their social and emotional well being. “What’s going on in your life?” becomes a standard question that school staff would ask rather than “Why are you failing/hitting/spouting off?” Schools by themselves are not able to address all the needs of the child and so partnerships with community members and families becomes crucial in helping a child succeed.

The ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) Study and the Massachusetts Advocates for Children publication of “Helping Traumatized Children Learn” provided an initial framework for the Compassionate Schools initiative in Washington State.

ACE is one of the largest investigations ever conducted on the links between childhood maltreatment and later-life health and well-being. Over 17,000 people provided detailed information about their childhood experience of abuse, neglect, and family dysfunction. The study findings suggest that these early experiences are major risk factors for leading causes of poor life quality, illness and death. Additional studies are still being conducted by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Addressing the nation’s worst health and social problems will likely progress as a result of understanding that many of these problems stem from the consequences of adverse childhood experiences. To date, over 50 scientific articles and over 100 conference and workshop have resulted from the ACE information.

“Helping Traumatized Children Learn” is a handbook written by The Massachusetts Advocates for Children policy initiative in 2005. It leads the way in thinking about how the effects of trauma can have a profound impact on learning. It introduces a flexible framework for schools to consider and addresses the need for policies to support practices. Together, these two studies provided a firm foundation for the work of the Compassionate Schools Initiative in Washington State.

OSPI is developing a Compassionate Schools Tool Box that will provide educators with a number of avenues to help build resiliency in students and positively impact learning. For example, an area of discussion in the Tool Box deals with behavior. According to Hertel, “sometimes a student’s behavior is the only language they have and teachers need to learn to become interpreters of behavior.”

Additionally, OSPI and Western Washington University, with support from the Mental Health Transformation Project, have published a handbook called “The Heart of Learning and Teaching: Compassion, Resiliency, and Academic Success.” The handbook was designed and written in a way that provides a flexible framework, practical tools, and applicable resources specifically to assist policy makers, community leaders, school administrators and teachers, parents and other family members. It focuses on the interconnectedness of issues critical to student academic success in today’s schools. These include a deeper understanding of learning and teaching, as well as the concepts of compassion, resiliency and school-community partnerships. The book was written with the following outcomes in mind:

To exemplify practical and applicable compassionate approaches to education that may be of benefit to all members of the school community.
To provide compassionate lenses through which members of our educational communities may better understand events and consequent behaviors that interfere with the attainment of educational goals.
To foster resilience and create supportive learning environments for students through a cadre of school and community-based resources that are identified and families are informed about.
To strengthen the voice of students and parents in creating that environment and actively recruiting community partners – both public an private – who can play essential roles in actualizing this reality.
To provide tools and resources to members of the school communities wishing to revise policies, procedures, curriculum, and instruction that will enhance compassionate learning environments.

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