Ptsd from school
Could School Cause PTSD? | Psychology Today
Source: Diego Grez/CC 3.0
Some people's school experience is as traumatic as that experienced by people with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Here, I create an example and at the end, offer takeaways for a wider range of people.
On the first day of preschool, Mo freaked out at the thought of his mother leaving him without her. That was a frightening first half-hour after which he calmed. But his fear resurfaced when his teacher insisted it was nap time and he had to lie down—he wasn't tired. He wanted not only to stay awake but to run around. The teacher wouldn't let him. It scared Mo that he wasn't even allowed to stay awake during the day. Worse, it wasn't his parents telling him; it was some stranger. Not a good beginning for Mo's decades in the schools.
Like many bright kids, Mo knew the alphabet and even read some words by the time he entered the first grade. But like most classes in recent decades, they weren't grouped by ability but mixed. Making it worse for above-average students, most teachers feel external and internal pressure to focus on the low-achievers, to close the achievement gap.
So Mo had to sit through two years of lessons teaching kids to read in the way that weak students need to learn it: phonics: vowel sounds, consonant sounds, short-a, long e: diphthongs, digraphs. And when it came time to actually read, Mo, who could read The Cat in the Hat cold, was pressed into indentured servitude: He had to painstakingly help weaker students struggle through. "It. ... was ... a ... colb ... no ... cold ... and wet ... bay. "No, Johnny it's 'cold and wet day.'"
Mo couldn't still for this and so started reading ahead: "No, Mo, stay with your reading partner." Such strictures frustrated Mo more and so he developed a habit of doodling and, horrors, getting out of his seat to look out the window, and okay, poke other kids.
Mo's parents had waved goodbye to their bright-eyed preschooler.
Now they say hello to their dulled first grader. As bad, they say hello to a child whose teacher said needs to be evaluated for hyperactivity and Ritalin.
Mo's academic boredom continued off and on through elementary and middle school but perhaps more worthy of your time is to mention that, while verbally assertive, Mo was physically reticent, a dangerous combination when dealing with some pre-adolescents. So Mo was often bullied by seemingly heartless, even sadistic boys, and ostracized from the "in" girls' tight web. Capstoning all this, perhaps because Mo was slightly delayed in acquiring secondary sex characteristics—deeper voice, facial and body hair—gay boys often came on to him and when he said he wasn't gay, they insisted he was.
High school brought a new set of problems. This time, the academics were sometimes too difficult and certainly seeming more irrelevant. The new Common Core curriculum, heralded by educators and politicians as raising standards for all students, was perceived by many students as filled with hard irrelevancies.
For example, here are the first-listed objectives in the Common Core Standards for 9th-grade Algebra. Mo's most common thought throughout much of high school was, "Why do I need to know this? If I become an engineer or mathematician, I could learn that in college but I know I don't want to do anything with all this math in it."
Seeing Structure in Expressions
- Interpret the structure of expressions
- Write expressions in equivalent forms to solve problems
- Arithmetic with polynomials and rational expressions
- Perform arithmetic operations on polynomials
- Understand the relationship between zeros and factors of polynomials
- Use polynomial identities to solve problems
- Rewrite rational expressions
Creating Equations
- Create equations that describe numbers or relationships
- Reasoning with equations and inequalities
- Understand solving equations as a process of reasoning and explain the reasoning.
- Solve equations and inequalities in one variable.
- Solve systems of equations
- Represent and solve equations and inequalities graphically
In high school, Mo took five or six academic courses per semester, some of which were Advanced Placement (college-level.) He did that because counselors, peers, and parents said it would help in getting into top colleges. He was also urged to go deep into and excel at one or more extracurriculars plus do community service. As a result, Mo was usually exhausted and overwhelmed.
And the social alienation continued, at least intermittently. He always felt outside the "in" crowd. Attractive girls wouldn't go out with him, and again there were false rumors that he was gay. While intellectually, he knew that there is nothing wrong with being gay, emotionally it felt bad to be so labeled, especially when he felt pretty sure he was heterosexual.
Mo did get into his first-choice college. He was sure he wouldn't—the college's publicly reported statistics suggested he was a long-shot.
While Mo was scared it would be too hard, how could he turn down the prestige of a designer-label college? So he went.
But the combination of being one of the university's weaker students combined with today's colleges abandonment of in loco parentis resulted in Mo studying too little, downloading others' term papers from the internet, watching too many sports games, and staying up too late with his human and chemical "friends."
Some of Mo's courses even increased his sense of alienation—ripping American capitalism, American exceptionalism, white maleness (He is both.) The professors and the texts they assigned told him he was a beneficiary of white male privilege and of the Eurocentric hegemony. Yet, "I don't feel privileged. All I feel is attacked. And whatever privilege I have I feel I earned or my family earned for me. But the professors say I'm wrong. I don't know what to think."
Mo wanted to "take a break" after the first semester but his parents, not college-educated themselves but deep believers that education is "the answer," pushed and pushed him to stay, even though it was costing them a fortune and they knew he was hardly making the most of it.
Mo's dad said to him, "It's like you're pulling up to the gas station, paying $40 but only putting $10-worth into your tank and driving away." But after two and a half years of college unhappiness, Mo could endure it no longer and dropped out.
Alas, after a year of being able to find no better job than barista, Mo reluctantly returned to school. Unfortunately, demotivated, the supposed 1 1/2 years Mo had to finish took him three years but finally—and $165,000 in debt—Mo graduated with a major in sociology and minor in American Studies.
When asked how he felt about his journey through school, Mo said, "It feels like two decades of waterboarding."
Now tortured by insecurity, the imposter syndrome, and memories of the 20 years of school trauma, Mo has become the stereotype; Uber driver, video games, girls, drinking, pot. But beneath the stereotype and the standard explanations—genetics, parenting, peer pressure, irresponsibility, and fear of failure—may lie an under-discussed explanation: school-induced post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Takeaway
Teachers, parents, and students: As mentioned up-front, this is a fictitious case and an extreme one but does any of it ring true to you? And if so, does it have any implications for what you might want to do differently?
For example, as a student, are you imposing pain on a classmate? As a teacher, are you contributing to students' too-pervasive boredom and/or believing the curriculum is irrelevant to their lives? As a parent, are you too quick to blame your child for what, at least in part, may be the schools' fault?
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Factsheet (for Schools) (for Parents)
Reviewed by: Shirin Hasan, MD
Psychology (Behavioral Health) at Nemours Children's Health
en español Hoja informativa sobre el trastorno de estrés postraumático (para las escuelas)
What Teachers Should Know
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition brought on by the overwhelming stress of a trauma.
Someone can develop PTSD after a traumatic or terrifying event in which physical or emotional harm was experienced, threatened, or witnessed.
Traumas that can lead to PTSD include:
- violent assaults
- physical, emotional, or sexual abuse
- fires or natural disasters
- automobile accidents
- senseless acts of violence, such as school or neighborhood shootings
- arrests, overdoses, evictions
- serious physical injuries or life-threatening medical illnesses
- witnessing another person go through these kinds of traumatic events
PTSD also can happen after the unexpected or violent death of a family member or close friend, or following serious harm or threat of death or injury to a loved one. Survivor guilt (feeling guilty after surviving an event in which someone died) also might lead to PTSD.
People of any age can have PTSD. PTSD-like symptoms can begin right after a trauma, or not until weeks or months after it.
In some cases, PTSD develops long after a trauma has happened.
Students with PTSD may:
- seem irritable, anxious, cranky, or angry
- seem detached or depressed
- have problems paying attention or concentrating
- have trouble eating or sleeping
- may startle easily or be overly sensitive to noises, sights, or smells that remind them of the traumatic event
- avoid people, places, things, or activities that remind them of the event
Students with PTSD might not recognize the link between their symptoms and the trauma.
Not every student who has been through trauma will develop PTSD. Most won’t. But they may show trauma-related (PTSD-like) symptoms for a short while, and need support. When symptoms are present in the first days and weeks after a trauma, a student may be diagnosed with acute stress disorder. With help and support, most students who have been through trauma do find ways to cope and recover.
Symptoms must last longer than a month to be diagnosed as PTSD. PTSD usually needs help from a mental health professional with experience in treating it. Therapy helps students with PTSD recover.
Students with PTSD or acute stress disorder might need to:
- take medicine to treat anxiety
- miss class time to talk with school counselors or mental health specialists
- have extra time to do class work
What Teachers Can Do
Teachers or school counselors can offer:
- referrals to qualified therapists, if needed
- accommodations tailored to the student’s needs
- listening, support, encouragement, and understanding
- extra help with schoolwork
Trauma makes it harder to focus and learn. Avoid overloading students with homework or things that can add to their stress. Allow students to practice relaxation skills at school when appropriate. Encourage them to talk with a school counselor when symptoms arise.
It takes time for students with PTSD to begin to feel better. In therapy, they learn coping skills to manage their anxiety. They learn to safely face things they avoided because of trauma. Gradually, as they learn to process the trauma they went through, their symptoms decrease.
Reviewed by: Shirin Hasan, MD
Date reviewed: June 2021
Sitemap
|
|
V. Lomonosov 
TV News of the PTS department
-
November 1, 2022
Dear students and teachers!
We bring to your attention new conversations with the participation of E.
G. Gachot: The Butterfly Effect, or Catastrophe Is Coming (Martsinkevich, Gachot)
Blackmail of the Globalists, or How to Save Russia from Frosts
October 18, 2022
Dear undergraduate students!
We bring to your attention a video card from the head of the PTS department on admission to the magistracy. The video is from 2021, but most of the information is up to date.
September 14, 2022
Dear undergraduate students!
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that in 2022 at the IEVT in the master's program, training began on individual educational trajectories . This practice allows more flexible adjustment of students' preparation, taking into account their personal interests for further professional activities.
August 24, 2022
We bring to your attention another interesting conversation with the participation of prof. cafe PTS Gasho E.
G.
A work of energy art, or Sawdust will save humanity (Martsinkevich, Gasho, Borisov)
cafe PTS Gasho E.G.:
How the energy industry was killed, and why the Chubais case lives on (Martsinkevich, Gasho)
What is in the way, and who is to blame? (Martsinkevich, Gasho)
European sanctions stimulate the development of the Russian North (Martsinkevich, Gasho, Frolov)
Solovyov LIVE European Energy Crisis Evgeny Gasho July 21, 2022
June 9, 2022
Dear students!
Please note that information about various competitions and grants is constantly published on the Internet.
Examples of well-known aggregators:
https://vsekonkursy.ru/, http://www.rsci.ru/, https://presidentgrants.ru/
Try setting up tracking on your topics, subscribe to the sites you like, ask teachers.
May 27, 2022
Dear students!
A schedule for liquidating debts has appeared in your personal accounts.
Please note that before you go for a retake, you need to check with the teacher about the audience, time and date.
May 9, 2022
May 6, 2022
Dear students and staff of the PTS department!
The semester is coming to an end. Do not forget to mark your activities in MPEI electronic resources - publications, advanced training, awards, etc. The information flow is now very intense and there are few prerequisites for its reduction, and it is easier to take into account and fix numerous actions as they are performed (that is, immediately).
In addition, entering the data now will greatly facilitate the work at the end of the year, when various reports of the institute will be formed.April 5, 2022
Dear students and teachers!
The functionality of the personal accounts of MPEI students and employees is constantly being improved and updated! In case of detection of errors, broken links, incorrect display of information, be sure to report to the support of the MPEI portal.
February 14, 2022
We present to your attention the author's report by Gasho E.G. about the city of Masdar (UAE).
February 5, 2022
The PTS department reminds the 4th year undergraduate and 2nd year master's students of the need to actively work with their supervisors on final qualifying theses.December 16, 2021
We bring to your attention the book of the authors: S.S. Beloborodov, E.G. Gasho, A.V. Nenashev.
Renewable energy sources and hydrogen in the energy system.pdfMay 20, 2021
The staff of the PTS department congratulates Kalinin Nikolai Vasilyevich on his birthday!
April 29, 2021
The staff of the PTS department sincerely congratulates Gasho Evgeny Gennadievich on his birthday!
Good health, motivation to go forward, desire to create and make the world a better place!
April 15, 2021
Dear teachers of the PTS department!
During the period of digitalization of higher education programs, we ask you to monitor changes in various subsections of the MPEI website and the departmental subsection!Dear students of the PTS department!
If you find any discrepancy between the information on the site and in reality, please report this to the PTS department.February 24, 2021
Dear 4-year Bachelor and 2-year Master students!
When preparing your final theses, we recommend that you ask your supervisors for samples/templates/provisions/guidelines (links to these materials) for final qualifying theses (WRC). Having a sample in front of your eyes, you can more easily perform WRC. And instead of "decorative work", devote more time to the content of the work.Graduation presentation template.
General provisions on the MPEI website.December 3, 2019
Dear students! In the section "Composition of the Department of PTS" will be added exemplary topics of graduation papers, on which teachers work with students. These materials will help you decide on the supervisor of your future graduate work.December 1, 2019
October 24, 2019
. Eric took 1st place in the bench press, shaking 215 kg. Congratulations!
August 6, 2019
MPEI at the International Energy School in SKOLKOVO.
The Energy Center of the Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO held a program for young professionals "New Energy in the World and in Russia". Leading Russian and world experts were invited, active and competent students and young specialists were selected.
Member of the school, undergraduate of the Department of Industrial Heat and Power Systems Karandashev Artem:
"For me, the school opened up new knowledge. During the week we studied the main energy sectors in Russia and the world, examined markets, new technologies and trends in the oil and gas sector, electricity and heat. A lot of time was devoted to the so-called energy transition - an increase in the share of renewable energy sources in the world balance.
It was interesting to practice English both during the speeches of foreign experts and in personal communication with them.For myself, I made contacts, for example, with employees of the Institute of Energy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
I believe that participation in the school should become my annual practice in order to keep abreast of new trends in the energy sector.
"
"New energy in the world and in Russia" - a detailed overview of the transformation of world and Russian energy. new technologies in the energy sector and their impact on energy markets
- changes in all sectors of the fuel and energy complex: oil, gas, oil and gas processing, coal industry, electricity and heat, renewable energy, hydropower, hydrogen energy and energy consumers, nuclear energy
- comparison of global and Russian processes
- excursions to energy facilities
The school was held for the third time on the basis of the SKOLKOVO campus.June 20, 2019
Eugene Gasho. Wormwood grass. Black reality: 33 years and 333 fables. Among the main events of the first day of the Forum was a panel session, the topic of which was "Creating Innovative Ecosystems for Green Growth: Science, Education and Technology". Evgeniy Gasho, Head of the Laboratory for Energy Saving at the NRU MPEI, Associate Professor of the Dept.
PTS. In his speech, Evgeny Gachot shared with his colleagues the experience of implementing the ideas and principles of the best available technologies (BAT) in the Russian Federation, which has developed in recent years in the close interweaving of industrial, environmental and energy policies pursued in our country. It was also noted that over the past 4 years, a trend has emerged to increase the energy and environmental efficiency of enterprises of the 1st category, a significant system has developed to support the modernization of industry at the federal and regional levels.
"Green economy" is not only zero waste, energy and resource saving, balanced urban infrastructures and climate adaptation, a new branch of environmental engineering, it is also the training of specialists in various fields. It is important to introduce various components of BAT into the training profiles of power engineers, technologists, lawyers, environmentalists," Evgeny Gasho emphasized in his speech.
In conclusion, it should be emphasized that the AEF is an annual central business event in Eurasia, where authoritative opinions and experience in the field of economic policy are exchanged and science to study global trends and develop practical solutions.
May 23, 2019
During the period from May 16 to May 22, the PTS department worked on current projects with a professor from the Brandenburg Technical University (Germany), head. cafe Building Physics by Winfried Schutz.
Such meetings have been held for more than a year and are very fruitful.May 17, 2019
At the PTS Department on May 16, 2019, a technical seminar was held on heat pumps and other energy-efficient technologies for heat and cold supply, hot water supply and energy.
Keynote speaker Alfred Ng has over 45 years of HVAC engineering experience spanning North America, Europe, Australia, India, China and Hong Kong, where he has established over 16 joint ventures in Canada, Europe and China, including Evapco, Aerco, Rosemex and Mammoth.
