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Returning to the Classroom
As we get closer to the beginning of a new - Reduction of new neuron production in
school year I feel compelled to offer insight hippocampus
as to how children may react as they return - Cognitive processing shifts to survival mode
to the classroom. (brain’s job is to keep you safe)
- Emotional responses override logical
People of my generation grew up with responses to situations
parents who were children during the Great - Loss of identity with the prior environment.
Depression of the 1930’s. I believe we can
all recall odd habits or fears that we saw in The last bullet on the list is the first one I would
our parents that were the result of extended like to address, this is powerful for a child. For
trauma experienced during the Depression. so long their identities were based on school
Once again our children and grandchildren and school friends and now they will return to
are experiencing extended trauma due to the a place that has changed as they have changed.
COVID 19 pandemic. It’s impact will remain
with them for the rest of their lives. A little side note, my eight year old
granddaughter is going to see, in person,
There is no denying the stress this pandemic her best friend that she has not spoken with
has caused in all of us; the isolation, concerns or seen since February. Her anxiety level is
about the future, and what the future will through the roof. She is questioning how she
bring. Now think about the stress in children. should act, what can she do or not do. Imagine
What happens when a child experiences now how it will be when over twenty students
prolonged stress? How will prolonged stress return to a classroom with a new teacher while
manifest itself as children return to the experiencing this loss of identity.
classroom? Their brains have been in overdrive
producing stress hormones for months. In Returning to the classroom could be made
order to give answers to the above questions easier if treated with an outpouring of
I went digging through notes taken in a class sensitivity. Hopefully schools will put in
years ago. place a few hours prior to school opening
that will allow students an opportunity to
Effects of prolonged exposure to stress become reacquainted with the building, other
hormones in children: students and new teachers. Students need
- Working and long term memory problems something more than just meet the teacher
- Reduced ability of frontal lobe to control night to prepare for the 2020-2021 school
emotions year. A benefit of allowing this type of re-
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