By Steve Fiedeldey, Benchmark Education, August 31, 2021
Everyone has a story.
As our family settled into our cozy living room sofas, my eldest daughter, Tess, turned on a favorite television singing competition. That is when it happened. I heard my own words through the mouth of my daughter. As the hosts of the show became emotional about the contestant’s experience, Tess reflected, “Everyone has a story.” It was during these emotional backstories that I would often reach for the remote to fast-forward, finding it too difficult to bear witness to others’ trials given my previous trauma as a cancer survivor.
Unlike my personal cancer experience, the trauma we all face during COVID-19 has been a shared, albeit different, experience for each of us. As we welcome our students back into our classrooms this September, I can’t help but worry that we are sending our teachers back into the classroom while still depleted from the previous two years. I wonder how many teachers have been given the proper tools and paid time to unpack their own experiences?
If you feel you are being ushered back into a “normal” start to the school year, below you will find actionable steps to help you and your students process trauma, bear witness to our collective and individual struggles, and develop a collective community of care.
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