# data[].attributes.headline
Circle Process Graphics & Handouts - Living Justice Press

# data[].attributes.subject
Circle Process Graphics & Handouts - Living Justice Press

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Mindfulness News, Resources, and Articles | Mindful Schools

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Read Mindful Schools news, resources, and articles to learn about Mindfulness in Education from our expert staff and contributing authors.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Paper Tigers follows a year in the life of a high school that has radically changed it's approach to disciplining its students, becoming a model for how to break the cycles of poverty, violence and disease that affects families.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Integrating education, health, and community to support the whole child.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.entities[].name
San Diego Unified is Treating Childhood Trauma

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Student acting out? Trauma may be to blame

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Research shows that children who experience trauma at an early age are more likely to act out in school. With caring teachers trained in trauma-informed care, these students can turn their grades... and their behaviors... around.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Find resources to help students manage their emotions, resolve conflicts, and make responsible decisions—creating the healthiest school culture possible.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's quick and easy to implement, and has proven benefits including boosted working memory and reduced stress.

Mindfulness is something I incorporate into each of my classes once a week, and it only takes four to seven minutes. After reviewing the benefits of mindfulness practices-like reduced stress, boosted working memory, and lowered emotional reactivity-it was no longer a nice-to-have, but rather a necessity.

Grades 9-12 | Redwood City, CA

Enrollment

388 | Charter, Suburban

Per Pupil Expenditures

$8,917 School * $9,658 District

Free / Reduced Lunch

47%

Data is from the 2014-2015 academic year.

Opening a Mindfulness Activity

At the beginning of each weekly session, I welcome everyone into a circle. We leave an empty chair for those who are unable to join us that day. We put our feet flat on the ground, close our eyes, and start with three deep breaths in and out. I guide students to follow where the air from their breath goes. While students are focusing on their breath, I invite them to reflect. Sometimes we reflect on the theme we're going to discuss in class, but not always. I always spend a minute having everyone, including myself, focus on how we're showing up to the space. Someone could show up happy from a great start to their day, angry because of an argument they just had, or stressed from an upcoming exam. We always make sure to validate how we are showing up without judgment toward ourselves.

Facilitating Mindfulness for the First Time

I have found the following steps useful in introducing and facilitating a mindfulness practice:

1. Let the research and purpose speak for themselves. I often lead with: "It is not strictly meditation, but rather a practice in supporting your mind to take care of yourself." I then list the benefits.

2. Offer an out and get visible buy-in. Students will often be hesitant. "It's weird!" they may say. And that's OK. When I first introduced this to students, I told them that if they could find a research-based practice that achieved the same goals, I would be happy to help them create a proposal for the group. I then asked the group to give a thumbs up if they could at least try it.

3. Share how developing a mindfulness practice has personally benefited you. After I get my students' buy-in, I tell them how mindfulness has helped me, and I give one or two anecdotes. For example, the last time I had to have a very difficult conversation with a personal friend, I felt my mind racing. I got to the coffee shop a few minutes early, put my phone away, and got into position-feet flat and hands flat on my knees. I took a few deep breaths, calmed myself, and made myself aware of how I was showing up. I was able to recognize why I was showing up that way, and I asked myself how I wanted to show up. I tried to keep my focus on only that and my breathing. I then visualized how I wanted to show up, took a few breaths in, and returned to the present moment. The conversation with my friend was incredible and uplifting. None of my dialogue was colored by the anxiety, stress, or self-consciousness that cluttered my mind leading up to that conversation.

4. Give a reason for every direction the first few times you go through the practice. For example, I'll begin by saying, "We're all going to close our eyes. I'll keep mine open to make sure that no one is being watched because that could be awkward and feel unsafe, and my job is to ensure your physical and emotional safety."

5. Balance giving directions with silent time to practice the task. I will often say, "Together, we take a deep breath in [followed by a collective breath], and a deep breath out." I then give us 40 seconds or so of just focusing. For that 40 seconds, I am silent. Before starting, I say, "Now we are going to hold that focus for a little while. We just focus on where our air is entering and exiting our body." Then every time I have a new direction or narration, I include myself again. It must be a balance between targeted narration and silent time to practice the task.

6. Only directly address behaviors that are unsafe. Otherwise, like when a student laughs or tries to make silly sounds, I will often gently reinforce the mindfulness practice by saying, "And we're taking a deep, calm breath in." I do this in a very direct but soft tone that sounds like a parent calming a child down rather than reprimanding them.

7. Allow for reflection and feedback. The first few times, I had my students turn to a partner and discuss how it was for them, offered space to give me critical feedback, and also offered them space to make meaning of their experience. Often, it sounds like, "OK, now turn around to your partner, give them a high five or ask if they want a hug, and discuss how that exercise was for you. Was it annoying? Fun? Interesting? Did you find yourself thinking about things you wished you hadn't? Whatever it is, be ready to share something that came in your conversation with the whole class at the end of 90 seconds!"

Ultimately, it takes a strong trust with your students and a set routine. At the end of the day, teaching is not about guaranteeing that students will use what we teach them. It's about ensuring that they know how to use it, and giving them the space to practice it. Like one of my students told me, mindfulness "doesn't help me know what to do, but it helps me recognize that I need something."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's quick and easy to implement, and has proven benefits including boosted working memory and reduced stress. Mindfulness is something I incorporate into each of my classes once a week, and it only takes four to seven minutes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) 815 West Van Buren St., Suite 210 Chicago, IL 60607-3566 312-226-3770

# data[].attributes.headline
7 Self-Care Strategies For Teachers | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.subject
7 Self-Care Strategies For Teachers | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

# data[].attributes.headline
Toolkit for Restoring Justice | Teaching Tolerance - Diversity, Equity and Justice

# data[].attributes.subject
Toolkit for Restoring Justice | Teaching Tolerance - Diversity, Equity and Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Practice restorative justice with these role-playing scenarios.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Whenever Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard is asked to explain this year's surge in violent crime, he answers that many of the city's altercations are the result of "ongoing disputes." It's a response that some people find wanting - after all, couldn't most shootings, stabbings, and assaults be attributed to a dispute of some kind? People don't shoot each other because they're getting along, right?

Sheppard's explanation points to something deeper, however. The act of violence, the retaliation to that act, the unwillingness of witnesses to talk to police: it's a closed system, but a system nonetheless. And it's incredibly difficult for outsiders, including the police, to penetrate that system - which could help explain why police have made so few arrests over the course of this violent year.

The parallel justice system functioning on the streets of Rochester is not effective and certainly not desirable, says Dominic Barter, director of training for the Brazilian Restorative Justice pilot projects. But people who distrust the traditional system view it as the only option to achieve some measure of justice.

"There's been a break in faith with the current justice system, which is important for all kinds of reasons," Barter says. "If people start breaking away from the justice system, it reveals a larger split within society, and the giving up of hope that mainstream society will actually treat everybody as equal and take care of everyone."

Barter pioneered a form of restorative justice called restorative circles, which brings together the people involved in and impacted by a conflict - including community members - to promote understanding, self-responsibility, and action. The process ends when the parties reach agreement on how the offending party can heal the rift with the person directly injured and with the wider community, which has also been damaged by the act, Barter says.

Restorative circles and processes are used in schools, prisons, neighborhoods, and many other places, he says. Judges sometimes factor-in offenders' participation in a restorative process when handing down their sentence, Barter says.

In Rochester, progressive activists, including those who served on the committee to revamp the process for filing complaints against the police, called for restorative practices to help deal with the violence plaguing the inner city. Awareness of restorative practices is growing locally, Barter says.

There are restorative programs at Monroe High School, Wilson Magnet, the University of Rochester, and the Rochester Police Department is doing a pilot program with young people in southwest Rochester.

"There is a lot of movement in Rochester in restorative practices - in schools, in the police department, in the courts," says Janelle Duda, assistant director for the Center of Public Safety Initiatives at the Rochester Institute of Technology. "This is absolutely the time for this."

Rochester responded to the last two big spikes in violent crime with police crackdowns. Zero Tolerance essentially flooded the city with cops. And Police Chief Sheppard says a big part of Operation Cool Down - the current initiative - is proactive policing. He's unapologetic about stopping people for minor offenses -for not having a bell on your bicycle, for example - to try to get guns off the street.

Barter says he supports the intensity of the response, but he's concerned about unequal enforcement. It's a fear shared by many local activists and civil libertarians, as well as some community leaders.

"Are there other communities where people are not treated the same way?" Barter says. "If there are, then even as you do justice, you're creating an experience of injustice. Why am I stopped for riding a bicycle without a bell in this neighborhood and not in that neighborhood?"

But blaming the police is too easy, he says, because law enforcement is empowered and sanctioned by the community it serves. And people need to understand that all conflict belongs to the community as a whole, Barter says, even if the conflict manifests between select members only.

"It's not a shooting that happens in the Crescent, where I don't live," he says. "It's a shooting that happens in Rochester, where I live. So it's mine. It's my conflict. I have a responsibility in this thing that is happening."

And that, he says, is the essence of restorative justice.

Barter says he knows there's temptation to dismiss restorative justice as a bleeding-heart approach to criminal justice. But he says it's actually a much more robust response than the traditional criminal justice system, because offenders must face up to their actions when they confront the people they hurt.

"We put the person who committed this act really on the spot," Barter says. "They're really exposed. Restorative justice is not the soft option."

In Barter's system - restorative circles - the offender and the victim meet in a location that's significant to the community. Barter says the space should inspire respect and symbolically convey to the participants the importance of what's about to take place. The participants also choose the other people they want to participate in the circle - people indirectly affected by what's happened.

"They need that third member of the community, the invisible participant in every conflict," Barter says. "They need those people to say, 'Hey, it may work for you to carry on squabbling like this, but it doesn't work for us. We need you to work this out.'

"That's why it's not bleeding heart," he says, "because it's actually initiated by community members who are dissatisfied, ironically, with the weakness of just locking someone up. A lot of people say, 'I want him to be in the circle because I want him to feel real pain. The real pain is what happened to my life as a consequence of what he did. If he's locked up, he never has to look at me.'"

The circle tries to get to the meaning behind what happened, Barter says. The victim gets to ask why, and the offender has an opportunity to apologize - though that doesn't always happen, Barter says.

"There's a very big place for that kind of thing" in Rochester, says John Klofas, professor of criminal justice at RIT. "It fundamentally deals with the difficulty victims have when things are really sort of torn asunder. It really restores the victims, because they get a choice of an active role in this, and I think that's very important. And the person who commits these acts has to really confront their position in the community, the effect of what they've done on the community, and their role in the community moving forward."

The circle ends when both parties agree on how the offender can make restitution. Duda, from the Center of Public Safety Initiatives, says the agreement can be something as simple as the offender agrees to pay to replace something he broke, or agrees to help clean up the mess he made.

"I think it's a lot more difficult process for an offender to go through," she says. "He's directly told, 'This is what you did, and this is what will make it right.'"

In the worst cases, offenders may never be able to do enough to physically compensate their victims, but the process does help victims heal and to regain some of the power they lost when they were victimized.

Duda and Klofas say that data on restorative justice does not exist to the depth necessary to fairly evaluate the concept. But they say the research that does exist is promising.

A study commissioned by the British government showed that the more serious the act, the more effective restorative justice is, Barter says.

"Superficially you could say that means that a gang shooting in a community is likely to produce a more cohesive, restorative process than petty theft because there's more buy-in," he says.

But that doesn't tell the whole story, Barter says, recalling an incident at a school that used a restorative circle after one student snatched another's pencil from her pencil case. It seems ridiculous to call a circle for such a minor thing, he says, until you learn that the pencil case was the student's last gift from her now-deceased parents.

"So, is it still a pencil?" Barter says. "It's not the act; it's the symbolic value that act has. It's the significance of what we do to each other, not actually what we do that really impacts our lives."

The restorative processes used in Brazil have reduced offenders' participation in prison rebellions, he says. And because of their cooperation in the process, the offenders are more likely to earn a place in the few education programs the prisons offer, Barter says.

RIT's Klofas says having a restorative process available can introduce continuity into a young person's life. Many small acts are either dismissed or ignored by the criminal justice system, he says, and the young person skates by sans consequences until his record builds up and then the hammer comes down. Having a restorative system means there's consistency, Klofas says: action equals consequence.

Klofas and other criminal-justice experts have often remarked on the disproportional nature of cause-and-response when it comes to the violence in Rochester's inner city. Seemingly minor slights like calling someone a name or "he looked at me funny" can provoke an ultraviolent reaction.

Barter says those kinds of insults go right to a person's pride and generally cannot go unanswered.

"What has been violated when someone looks at you funny?" he says. "My dignity. My power. My authority. My value to the community has been diminished by what you've done. That's a nonnegotiable value.

"I agree with them. That's an injustice. And not responding to injustice is dangerous. It sends a message that no one counts, nothing matters. No community. No social cohesion."

Barter says he's learned that one of the things victimhood is about is recovering power. People can't stand feeling vulnerable and powerless to control their own well-being, he says.

"Suddenly I'm reminded that something can come in from left field and take away my ability to take care of myself," Barter says. "There's an immense sense of vulnerability, and there's a corresponding energy to close that wound."

Victimhood can occur as a sudden shock, he says, or as a gradual, creeping sense of disenfranchisement: there's something about you that makes you less worthwhile than others in the community.

Restorative circles try to use that shock, that energy that goes into craving punishment and vengeance to create a change in behavior, Barter says.

"The change in behavior happens because empathy occurs," he says. "It might seem strange to think of vengeance as being an attempt to create empathy, but if you look at it in terms of proportional pain, that's what it's really about. 'I want you to know how I feel,' is what people often say as they are hurting others. 'You'll learn not to do that again,' is something that people often say to justify violence imposed on other people. 'I want you to get a taste of what it was like to be me.'"

Barter says he doesn't see a victim's thirst for vengeance as a bad thing, necessarily.

"I just want to dialogue with them about what will create that sense of what they're calling closure," he says. "That sense of changed behavior, the sense that this person lived to know what it felt like. It's very unusual that someone continues to believe that more pain is going to resolve pain."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Whenever Rochester Police Chief James Sheppard is asked to explain this year's surge in violent crime, he answers that many of the city's altercations are the result of "ongoing disputes." It's a response that some people find wanting - after all, couldn't most shootings, stabbings, and assaults be attributed to a dispute of some kind?

# data[].attributes.headline
Positive Discipline | Teaching Tolerance - Diversity, Equity and Justice

# data[].attributes.subject
Positive Discipline | Teaching Tolerance - Diversity, Equity and Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This primer to positive discipline can get you started.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Psychological First Aid for Schools (PFA-S) | National Child Traumatic Stress Network - Child Trauma Home

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the National Center for PTSD are pleased to make the Psychological First Aid for Schools Field Operations Guide and accompanying handouts available.

# data[].attributes.headline
7 Ways to Calm a Young Brain in Trauma | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.subject
7 Ways to Calm a Young Brain in Trauma | Edutopia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A Past Marked by Tragedy and Trauma

Max is one of my sixth-grade students. He meanders into the classroom each day carrying in a past filled with tragedy. His mother was murdered last spring and his father almost exactly a year before her. Now living with his alcoholic grandmother, Max continues to struggle with the aftermath of these tragedies.

His gait is awkward and clumsy, and he avoids eye contact with everyone. His movements are erratic as he plays with the laces on new basketball shoes, slipping them off and on every few minutes. It always feels as if his mind is far away, rarely in Room 242. Making noises, flicking wads of paper, and yelling at classmates across the room are part of his morning routine. Scanning the classroom to see who might be provoking him, he postures for a fight.

The Impact of Trauma

A traumatized brain can be tired, hungry, worried, rejected, or detached, and these states are often accompanied by feelings of isolation, worry, angst, and fear. The neurobiological changes caused by negative experiences trigger a fear response in the brain. When we feel distress, our brains and bodies are flooded with emotional messages that trigger the question, "Am I safe?" We react physiologically with an agitated limbic system that increases blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration as the levels of the hormones cortisol and adrenaline increase in our bodies. Chronic activation of the fear response can damage those parts of the brain responsible for cognition and learning.

When the brain has experienced significant adversity, it becomes fundamentally reorganized. Past experiences can live on in the body and may be experienced as flashbacks, memories, or repetitive thoughts about the painful event.

Many children and adolescents come to school with a deep mistrust of adults because they've never formed healthy attachments. These young people have brains that are in a constant state of alarm.

Psychiatrists Bruce Perry and Bessel van der Kolk are pioneers in the study of trauma. Their research looks at the critical issue of how traumatized people can find a sense of safety within their own bodies. Younger children need our help to do that-to process that lump in their throat, that rapid heartbeat, or that sensation around their eyes when they're about to cry. The best approach, according to Perry and van der Kolk, is to acknowledge the negative reactions by giving these students a safe place for a few minutes, allowing the brain and body to calm down.

Below are some strategies I implement in K-6 classrooms that prepare the brain for sustained attention and reduce distractions. These strategies are beneficial for all students, but especially those who come into the classroom carrying negative emotion. We implement these throughout the day-at the beginning of class, after recess or lunch, or at the end of the day.

Strategies to Calm the Brain

1. Taking deep breaths brings an oxygenated glucose blood flow to our frontal lobes. Taking just three deep inhales and exhales calms the emotional brain.

2. Movement is critical to learning, as it activates several areas of the brain at once while calming the brain. I will usually lead with a rhythm, using a plastic cup or my body, and students will mimic me by drumming the pattern on their legs and arms. The collective sound brings a sense of community to the classroom.

3. Once a day, I pass out a drop of lotion, and for 90 seconds students give their hands and fingers a massage, noticing their palms, fingertips, and any sensations that feel uncomfortable or stiff. We always reflect afterward.

4. For a few minutes, I have the students rock along their spine to help them feel present in their bodies. This also provides a soothing rhythm that subtly grounds them with sensation and movement.

5. Placing our fingers on our throats, we begin the day with a sound or class chant and feel the vibration of our vocal cords. This gives everyone a chance to participate and to see how we can mimic different animals, instruments, and random classroom sounds such as papers crinkling.

6. The students sit with their legs straight out and begin wiggling their toes and ankles, shaking knees and thighs, rotating shoulders, arms, and finally their heads, keeping all body parts moving at the same time. Then we reverse the process and stop our heads, arms, shoulders, and on down. This gives children a great body scan and a sequence for working memory.

7. Sometimes I'll put on music and give the students old scarves, and we'll dance around the room waving the scarves and feeling the soft sensation as we dance and pass by one another. When the music stops, we freeze and notice our postures and movements. This strategy can be led by the teacher or a student to see if we can mimic a movement or create our own.

These are a few techniques that have worked in my classroom. How have you been able to help calm students who have experienced trauma to get them ready to learn?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Max is one of my sixth-grade students. He meanders into the classroom each day carrying in a past filled with tragedy. His mother was murdered last spring and his father almost exactly a year before her. Now living with his alcoholic grandmother, Max continues to struggle with the aftermath of these tragedies.

# data[].attributes.headline
4.1. Social Discipline Window - IIRP Graduate School

# data[].attributes.subject
4.1. Social Discipline Window - IIRP Graduate School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The social discipline window (Figure 1) is a concept with broad application in many settings. It describes four basic approaches to maintaining social norms and behavioral boundaries. The four are represented as different combinations of high or low control and high or low support. The restorative d...

# data[].attributes.headline
What is Trauma? | Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice

# data[].attributes.subject
What is Trauma? | Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is Trauma? | Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Educators want nothing more than for our students to feel successful and excited to learn, and to understand the importance of their education. We want our students' attention and respect to match our own. I believe that most if not all of our students desire the same, but walking through our classroom doors are beautifully complex youth who are neurobiologically wired to feel before thinking.

Carrying In

Educators and students are carrying in much more than backpacks, car keys, conversations, partially-completed homework, and outward laughter. Buried deep in the brain's limbic system is an emotional switching station called the amygdala, and it is here that our human survival and emotional messages are subconsciously prioritized and learned. We continually scan environments for feelings of connectedness and safety. I am learning that the students who look oppositional, defiant, or aloof may be exhibiting negative behavior because they are in pain and presenting their stress response.

Over 29 percent of young people in the U.S., ages 9-17, are affected by anxiety and depression disorders (PDF). The thinking lobes in the prefrontal cortex shut down when a brain is in pain.

Trauma and the Brain

What is trauma? When we hear this word, we tend to think of severe neglect or abusive experiences and relationships. This is not necessarily true. A traumatized brain can also be a tired, hungry, worried, rejected, or detached brain expressing feelings of isolation, worry, angst, and fear. In youth, anger is often the bodyguard for deep feelings of fear. Trauma-filled experiences can be sudden or subtle, but the neurobiological changes from negative experiences cause our emotional brain to create a sensitized fear response. When we feel distress, our brains and bodies prioritize survival, and we pay attention to the flood of emotional messages triggering the question, "Am I safe?" We react physiologically with an irritated limbic system that increases blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration with an excessive secretion of the neuro hormones cortisol and adrenaline pumping through our bodies. Chronic activation of the fear response can damage other parts of the brain responsible for cognition and learning.

We are all neurobiologically wired for social connection and attachment to others. When children don't receive healthy connections in early development, the brain rewires and adapts just as readily to unhealthy environments. If brain development is disrupted by adversity at any age, but especially in early development (PDF), the skills of problem solving, reflection, and emotional regulation are compromised and diminished. Children and adolescents need stimulation and nurturance for healthy development and attachment. Students whose development is disrupted often walk through the doors of our schools mistrusting adults.

Prime the Brain

To learn and problem solve, we must prime the brain for engagement and feelings of safety. In recent years, there has been a significant emphasis on Common Core proficiency while teacher training has often lost sight of the impact of understanding brain development in students. The almond-shaped clusters of neurons resting deep in each temporal lobe must be quieted if learning and well-being are to be exercised and addressed. Educators too need to be aware of our brain states and subconscious emotional triggers that could throw us into a power struggle and a stress-response state as we interface with our students.

What can we do to create calm and safe brain states within ourselves and within the students who walk in with an activated fear response?

We first must understand that feelings are the language of the limbic system. When a student in stress becomes angry or shut down, he or she won't hear our words. Talking a student through any discipline procedure or thought reflection sheet in the heat of the moment is fruitless. Here are three ways to calm the stress response -- two of them through immediate action, and the third by a brief science lesson.

1. Movement

Movement is critical to learning while calming the stress and fear response. Teachers and students together could design a space, a labyrinth of sorts, where students can walk or move to relieve the irritation of the amygdale. Physical activities such as push-ups, jogging in place, jumping jacks, and yoga movements help to calm the limbic brain and bring the focus back to learning and reasoning.

2. Focused Attention Practices

Focused attention practices teach students how to breathe deeply while focusing on a particular stimulus. When we take two or three minutes a few times each day or class period and teach students how to breathe deeply, we are priming the brain for increased attention and focus. These practices might also include a stimulus such as sound, visualization, or the taste of a food. The focused attention increases an oxygenated blood and glucose flow to the frontal lobes of the brain where emotional regulation, attention, and problem solving occur.

3. Understanding the Brain

Teaching students about their amygdala and fear response is so empowering. When we understand that this biology is many thousands of years in the making, hardwired to protect us, our minds begin to relax through knowing that our reactions to negative experiences are natural and common. A middle-school teacher and her students have named the amygdala "Amy G. Dala." By personifying this ancient, emotionally-driven structure in our brains, the students are befriending their fear responses and learning how to lessen negative emotion. We cannot always control the experiences in our lives, but we can shift how we respond, placing the science of our brains in the driver's seat of discipline!

Have you recognized students experiencing emotional pain? How have you helped them overcome this?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Educators want nothing more than for our students to feel successful and excited to learn, and to understand the importance of their education. We want our students' attention and respect to match our own. I believe that most if not all of our students desire the same, but walking through our classroom doors are beautifully complex youth who are neurobiologically wired to feel before thinking.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Building Resiliency

The encouraging news is that young people have the innate capacity to bounce back from adversity. You can create an environment that feels safe and connected by helping students understand how negative emotions hijack our learning. I am currently teaching young adolescents, many with significant emotional and behavioral challenges. To facilitate a predictable and consistent environment, we create class guidelines, procedures, and engagement systems so each student knows the class expectations and routines. Here are four strategies that have really worked with my students.

1. Brain-Based Learning Centers

In my classroom, students can go to one corner to recharge and calm down from negative emotion. This corner is called the "amygdala first aid station" as the amygdala is the fight/flight/freeze center in the brain. Students needing a quiet area with tables to study or to complete work can go to the "hippocampus area," named after the part of the brain that memorizes and connects new information to what we already know. Finally, the "prefrontal cortex area"-named after the problem-solving center of the brain-includes tables and collaborative spaces for students who are ready to discuss projects or ideas, watch documentaries, and collaborate. When we teach students about their brain functions and connect them to specific activities, they become more self-aware and fluent in their own cognitive processes. Check out my post " Brain Labs: A Place to Enliven Learning " for a helpful resource as you think about how to design predictable and safe spaces to learn, socialize, and recharge.

2. Personalized Check-In Notes

If students are in a negative brain state, we must regulate behaviors before any learning will occur. The best way I have found is to first attend to their emotional temperature, to let them know I am present and available no matter the negative behaviors. To connect with and create consistency for a diverse array of students with different needs, I use waiter and prescription pads as a way of personalizing communication throughout the day. These are particularly effective for reaching those students who don't respond to spoken communication. Share notes, small goals, affirmations, and requests to maintain individualized consistent connections. Once the task or goal has been ordered and received, you can create fun ways to make a payment or incentivize.

3. Structured Emotional Support

The "2x10 Strategy" developed by psychologist Raymond Wlodkowski is an excellent brain-aligned strategy to implement with our most challenging students. For two minutes each day, 10 days in a row, teachers have a personal conversation-either written or in-person-with a student about anything the student is interested in, as long as the conversation is G-rated. Wlodkowski found an 85 percent improvement in that one student's behavior. In addition, he found that the behavior of all the other students in the class improved.

4. Locked Journal for Safe Self-Expression

When we write out our thoughts and feelings, we clear space in the frontal lobes for positive emotion and higher cognitive processes. A locked journal can give students a safe place to release anxiety while maintaining control over their own privacy. If a student chooses to write or draw their feelings and thoughts through this format, we discuss how this journal can become a trusted friend, and how they might be able to use it to prototype creative forms of expression to be shared under the appropriate circumstances.

Delivery Matters

In working with students, your method of delivery will make a big difference. Students who are emotionally shut down and unresponsive to words may respond better with written notes. You can create note cards for directions, choices, or explanations, and give students the opportunity to write their responses rather than speak. All behavior is communication. Although I might not get a verbal response from a student, I always keep trying with the option of sharing notes and letters.

What I am learning every day-even as a seasoned educator-is that I must regulate behaviors before any learning will occur, and the strategies above have helped immeasurably. Students who struggle with emotional disturbances are some of our most vulnerable, but when we can create predictable and consistent supports for them, their inner resilience can shine.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Reaching Students With Emotional Disturbances

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A seasoned educator shares four ideas for supporting students who have suffered emotional trauma.

# data[].attributes.headline
Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsiblity

# data[].attributes.subject
Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsiblity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Homepage | Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Since 1982, Morningside Center has helped tens of thousands of educators make their schools and classrooms more caring, collaborative, equitable and effective.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Emotional Intelligence Movie Office Clip

# data[].attributes.body
Daniel Goleman

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman ► Animated Book Summary

# data[].attributes.headline
Laying the Foundation for Emotional Intelligence - YouTube

# data[].attributes.subject
Laying the Foundation for Emotional Intelligence - YouTube

# data[].attributes.body
Use this day 3?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Laying the Foundation for Emotional Intelligence

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Summit Prep in Redwood City, California, uses a variety of activities in the weekly, 90-minute Habits, Community, and Culture (HCC) class, where students learn Habits of Success and develop social and emotional learning (SEL) skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)

Build social and emotional skills into any class.

Summit students rip up their stress.

Summit Preparatory Charter High School in Redwood City, California, uses a variety of activities in the weekly, 90-minute Habits, Community, and Culture (HCC) class, where students learn Habits of Success and develop social and emotional learning (SEL) skills. The school has developed an HCC curriculum for grades nine through 12 and hired two full-time teachers for HCC, but Summit's academic teachers also use some of these activities to build SEL skills and deepen their relationships with their students. Cady Ching, a biology and AP environmental science teacher at Summit, incorporates opening activities into all of her classes: "In my freshman classes, we do them every class period."

Visualization to release stress: Have your students imagine what stress looks and feels like inside their body, and then ask them to release it. "The mindfulness practice makes you think the stress is coming off your body," says Geoffrey, a 12th-grade student.

Noise isolation: There are a variety of sounds that your students hear when they're in your classroom, from students walking in the hallway to outdoor construction noise. Have your students focus on one noise and describe it to themselves and recall the last time they interacted with it.

Here are some of the opening, group sharing, and closing activities that teachers use at Summit:

Opening Activities

Summit students practice mindfulness.

2. Name the emotion you're bringing to class: Have each student call out the emotion they're feeling. This helps each student know how they and other students are feeling, what different emotions look like, and how to better interact with their peers based on how they're feeling.

3. Write down, rip up, and throw away your stress: Have your students write down their expectations and insecurities, rip them up, and throw them away. This emotional check-in takes about three minutes. By acknowledging how your students are feeling at the start of each class, you'll acknowledge their barriers to learning and create a safe space for your students to overcome them.

5. Quote of the day: Introduce a quote relevant to what your students are learning or to a shared experience-for example, an act of violence in the community. You can facilitate a whole-class discussion, group students into pairs, or have each student share a one-word response to the quote. This gives students the space to reflect on their beliefs and experiences and whether they agree or disagree with the quote and other students' opinions, and it gives them insight into their peers' perspectives and feelings.

6. Where we came from: Collect baby pictures from your students. Project one baby picture at the start of class, have your students guess who it is, and then have the featured student share something about their childhood.

7. Starting positive: Have each student tape a sheet of paper to their back and then walk around and write positive qualities about their peers on their backs.

8. Motivational moment: Have two students start the class with a three- to five-minute presentation-and come up with two or three discussion questions-based on their interests. The presentation must be related to the course content in a real-world context. "Many students include a video for visuals and increased engagement, but it's optional," says Ching. Have the rest of the class partner up to discuss their questions for one minute and then give them the opportunity to share out to the whole class. This exercise gives your students insight into their peers' interests.

Grades 9-12 | Redwood City, CA

Enrollment

388 | Charter, Suburban

Per Pupil Expenditures

Free / Reduced Lunch

47%

Data is from the 2014-2015 academic year.

Group Sharing

9. Circle sharing: To encourage active listening, create small groups. Have your students position their chairs in a circle so everyone can make eye contact. To strengthen empathy, you can facilitate deeper discussion around what a student shares by asking, "Why did that student share what they did?" or "What perspective is that student coming from?"

When discussing emotionally charged topics, it's important to have guidelines to foster a safe space. Summit uses the Courageous Conversation protocol created by Glenn E. Singleton when discussing race. The protocol is guided by four agreements-stay engaged, experience discomfort, speak your truth, and expect and accept nonclosure. Here is an example of elementary school discussion guidelines from School 21.

Summit students sit in a circle for a whole-class discussion.

10. Write a poem from someone else's perspective. Have your students choose someone they don't know. This helps them to understand that they don't "need to be best friends with someone to empathize with them," explains Ballard.

11. Have a conversation with someone you don't know. Have your students pair up with a student they don't know and provide the pairs with five questions to ask each other. Each student introduces their partner to the class, speaking as if they were their partner, while the rest of the class looks at the student being introduced. "We don't see people sometimes," says Ballard, "and this exercise helps students to see each other more deeply."

12. Play interest and identity-related bingo. Instead of squares filled with numbers or vocabulary words, create cards with information relating to your students. Summit's Bingo cards have things like "'I like to read' or 'I was born in a different country,'" says Armando, a ninth-grade student.

I would like to appreciate Brenda for facilitating the conversation in our small group.

I would like to thank everyone for taking this class seriously.

I apologize to everyone for having my headphones in for half of the time.

Closing Activity

13. Appreciation, apology, aha: Have your students get in a circle and share an appreciation, apology, or realization with the group. Students in Ballard's class have shared things like:

Encourage authentic and timely apologies. Apologizing for something that happened a long time ago has less impact than apologizing for something that happened that day or week. Let your students know that they don't have to name who they're apologizing to when they apologize for what they did.

Help students share helpful, not harmful words. "I often say, 'Appreciations, apologies, and ahas should be something that you genuinely think will be useful for people to hear,'" says Ballard.

Have your students snap, clap, or shake both hands when they hear something that resonates with them. "We snap to let people know that we hear them without exerting our own voice in their narrative," explains Ballard. Students shake their hands when peers share things that are emotionally charged. Ballard often gets this started by saying, "Let's shake it up for that."

"When you pay attention to each other, not only does it build a sense of community, but we're more able to understand other people," says Janet, a 12th-grade student. "If you're able to understand people at a younger age, you could work better with them as adults. That changes how the future generations will be. People can be more accepting, more helpful towards each other."

What makes this a SCHOOL THAT WORKS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Build social and emotional skills into any class.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
David Harper, author of A to Z of Mindfulness for Christians, discusses the need for pauses in a busy schedule, and how mindfulness groups can welcome both agnostics and people of faith.

# data[].attributes.headline
Kalief Browder, Held at Rikers Island for 3 Years Without Trial, Commits Suicide - The New York Times

# data[].attributes.subject
Kalief Browder, Held at Rikers Island for 3 Years Without Trial, Commits Suicide - The New York Times

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Kalief Browder was sent to Rikers Island when he was 16 years old, accused of stealing a backpack. Though he never stood trial or was found guilty of any crime, he spent three years at the New York City jail complex, nearly two of them in solitary confinement.

In October 2014, after he was written about in The New Yorker, his case became a symbol of what many saw as a broken criminal justice system. Mayor Bill de Blasio cited the article this spring when he announced an effort to clear the backlogs in state courts and reduce the inmate population at Rikers.

For a while, it appeared Mr. Browder was putting his life back together: He earned a high school equivalency diploma and started community college. But he continued to struggle with life after Rikers.

On Saturday, he committed suicide at his parents' home in the Bronx.

Jennifer Gonnerman, the author of the article in The New Yorker, said in an interview on Monday that it appeared he was never able to recover from the years he spent locked alone in a cell for 23 hours a day.

Once out of jail, Ms. Gonnerman said, "he almost recreated the conditions of solitary," shutting himself in his bedroom for long periods. "He was very uncomfortable being around people, especially in large groups," she said.

Mr. de Blasio's administration in December did away with solitary confinement for 16- and 17-year-olds, citing the damaging effects that prolonged isolation can have on their mental stability.

In a statement released on Monday, the mayor said that "Kalief's story helped inspire our efforts" at Rikers.

"There is no reason he should have gone through this ordeal," he added, "and his tragic death is a reminder that we must continue to work each day to provide the mental health services so many New Yorkers need."

Image

Kalief Browder, 22, hanged himself at his parents' home in the Bronx over the weekend. Credit Zach Gross

Ms. Gonnerman said she was drawn to Mr. Browder because he was able to speak about what he had been through with unusual insight. She said before he agreed to go public with his story, he insisted on finishing his high school equivalency diploma. "He wanted to show that he had accomplished something before he entered the spotlight," she said.

In jail he had tried to commit suicide several times. He told Ms. Gonnerman that he was repeatedly beaten by correction officers and fellow inmates, but she said she did not realize the extent of the abuse until she watched security videos showing him being knocked to the ground by an officer and attacked by inmates.

Throughout, he insisted on his innocence, refusing several offers from prosecutors to take a plea deal, including one that would have allowed him to be released immediately.

Ultimately, prosecutors dropped the charges. In the course of the three years Mr. Browder was being held, they lost contact with their only witness.

At the end of the article, Mr. Browder, who was the youngest of seven children and nicknamed Peanut by his family, described being unable to rid himself of the fears that had consumed him in jail. He said he was afraid of being attacked on the subway. And before going to sleep at night, he checked to make sure every window in the house was locked.

There were some good moments in the two years after he was released. An anonymous donor offered to pay his community college tuition. His story attracted the attention of celebrities like Jay Z and Rosie O'Donnell, who invited him onto "The View" and gave him a MacBook Air laptop computer. Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, talked about him in campaign speeches. (Mr. Paul, who is running for president, expressed condolences to Mr. Browder's family on Twitter on Monday.)

But Mr. Browder's mental health deteriorated, Ms. Gonnerman said. He became paranoid and last Christmas was hospitalized on a psychiatric ward at Harlem Hospital Center. She wrote in an article on The New Yorker's website on Sunday that he had thrown out his television because he said he feared it was watching him.

On Saturday, Mr. Browder pushed an air-conditioning unit out of a second-floor window at his parents' home, wrapped a cord around his neck and, according to Ms. Gonnerman, pushed himself out of the opening feet-first.

His mother heard a noise, according to Ms. Gonnerman, went outside to the backyard and saw that her youngest child had hanged himself.

Mr. Browder was 22 years old.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A20 of the New York edition with the headline: Man Held at Rikers Jail for 3 Years Without Trial Commits Suicide at 22. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kalief Browder, Held at Rikers Island for 3 Years Without Trial, Commits Suicide

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kalief Browder was sent to Rikers Island when he was 16 years old, accused of stealing a backpack. Though he never stood trial or was found guilty of any crime, he spent three years at the New York City jail complex, nearly two of them in solitary confinement.

# data[].attributes.headline
How Trauma Affects Child Brain Development

# data[].attributes.subject
How Trauma Affects Child Brain Development

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Vol. 17, No. 2
May 2012

The sheer volume of research on trauma, brain development, and outcomes for children can be daunting. Fortunately, understanding and applying key concepts to child welfare practice doesn't have to be complicated.

Trauma and the Brain
"The human brain is designed to sense, process, store, perceive, and act on information from the external and the internal environment. All of these complex systems and activities work together for one overarching purpose-survival" (Goldstein, 1995 cited in Perry, et al., 1995).

Neurons are the building blocks of the brain. During development, neurons create networks that link to create systems. These systems are how the brain regulates all functions. Brain functions are organized from the most simple to the most complex. The development of these functions is sequential, meaning prior events impact future development.

A key fact that child welfare professionals, judges, and others who work with child welfare-involved families should know is that there are critical developmental times when neural pathways are being formed that can be significantly altered by traumatic events (Perry, 1995, 2009).

Trauma's Impact on Brain Development

Attachment: Trouble with relationships, boundaries, empathy, and social isolation

Physical Health: Impaired sensorimotor development, coordination problems, increased medical problems, and somatic symptoms

Emotional Regulation: Difficulty identifying or labeling feelings and communicating needs

Dissociation: Altered states of consciousness, amnesia, impaired memory

Cognitive Ability: Problems with focus, learning, processing new information, language development, planning and orientation to time and space

Self-Concept: Lack of consistent sense of self, body image issues, low self-esteem,shame and guilt

Behavioral Control: Difficulty controlling impulses, oppositional behavior, aggression, disrupted sleep and eating patterns, trauma re-enactment

Source: Cook, et al, 2005

Early Childhood
Brain development in infancy and early childhood lays the foundation for all future development. Neural pathways form at great speed and depend on the repetition of experiences. Experiences teach the brain what to expect and how to respond.

When experiences are traumatic, the pathways getting the most use are those in response to the trauma; this reduces the formation of other pathways needed for adaptive behavior. Trauma in early childhood can result in disrupted attachment, cognitive delays, and impaired emotional regulation. Also, the overdevelopment of certain pathways and the underdevelopment of others can lead to impairment later in life (Perry, 1995).

By age three, the brain is almost 80% of its adult size; by age five it is 90% (zerotothree.org). Although this creates a sense of urgency regarding intervention, it is also important to know that the brain has the most plasticity in infancy and early childhood, meaning there is the most opportunity for change. This is both the reason that prolonged trauma in early childhood can be so devastating, but also a window of opportunity for interventions that can alter the brain in positive ways (CWIG, 2011).

Children and Teens
Brain development continues in the school-age years, but more slowly. During this stage neural pathways are pruned or eliminated to increase efficiency. In addition, the brain coats neural pathways to protect and strengthen them (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). This process allows the school-age child to master more complex skills, including impulse control, managing emotions, and sustaining attention. Trauma during this stage of development can have significant impact on learning, social relationships, and school success (NCTSN, 2008).

The impact of trauma at this age also depends on the onset. If trauma continues into the school-age years from early childhood, the impact is greater on overall functioning. There is some evidence that trauma that begins during the school-age years will have a different impact than trauma that begins in early childhood. Specifically, school-age onset seems to result in more externalizing behaviors (acting out) whereas early childhood onset results in more internalizing behaviors (withdrawal, depression, self-blame) (Manly, 2001; Kaplow, 2007).

In adolescence the brain goes through another period of accelerated development. The pruning of unused pathways increases, similar to early childhood. This process makes the brain more efficient, especially the part of the brain that supports attention, concentration, reasoning, and advanced thinking. Trauma during adolescence disrupts both the development of this part of the brain and the strengthening of the systems that allow this part of the brain to effectively communicate with other systems. This can lead to increased risk taking, impulsivity, substance abuse, and criminal activity (NCTSN, 2008; Chamberlin, 2009; Wilson, 2011; CWIG, 2009).

What You Can Do
Addressing the impact of trauma requires a comprehensive and collaborative approach. Awareness and understanding of the issue is the first step towards trauma informed practice. For more practical applications seeEssential Trauma-Informed Activities for Child Welfare Staf f in this issue.

References for this and other articles in this issue

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Trauma Affects Child Brain Development

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Vol. 17, No. 2 May 2012 The sheer volume of research on trauma, brain development, and outcomes for children can be daunting. Fortunately, understanding and applying key concepts to child welfare practice doesn't have to be complicated. Trauma and the Brain "The human brain is designed to sense, process, store, perceive, and act on information from the external and the internal environment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning is helping make evidence-based social and emotional learning an integral part of education from preschool through high school.

Learn about the Fundamentals of SEL Learn more about SEL

Getting started with systemic implementation

Our platform is made possible by:

This site uses cookies to improve your experience and help CASEL understand how our site is being used. By continuing to use our site, you consent to the use of cookies. Review our Privacy Policy for more information.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Advancing Social and Emotional Learning - CASEL

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning is helping make evidence-based social and emotional learning an integral part of education from preschool through high school. Learn about the Fundamentals of SEL Learn more about SEL Getting started with systemic implementation Our platform is made possible by: This site uses cookies to improve your experience and help CASEL understand how our site is being used.

# data[].attributes.body
http://www.practicenotes.org/v17n2/brain.htm

# data[].attributes.headline
TSA | Guidelines for developing a trauma-informed school

# data[].attributes.subject
TSA | Guidelines for developing a trauma-informed school

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Americans, says oil expert Paul Roberts, are "energy illiterate" ( Mother Jones interview, 6/8/04). The main purpose of the following materials is to promote energy literacy, especially about our main energy source, oil. The materials begin with a literacy test that students will probably fail but that can help to promote discussion and provoke interest. Three readings follow, along with suggested classroom activities.

A Literacy Test

1. Of the energy sources upon which the U.S. depends, which one provides the U.S. with the most energy?

2. How much of the world's oil supply is consumed by the U.S., which has 3% of the world's population consume?

3. How much of the world's oil supply does the U.S. produce?

4. What is the primary use of oil in the U.S.?

5. What part of the world has most of the world's known oil reserves?

6. What country has the world's greatest known oil reserves?

7. If the U.S. had to rely completely on its own oil resources, how long would it be, at the current rate of use, before the country ran out of oil?

8. How long will it be until the world's known oil reserves begin to decline irreversibly?

9. What would be one probable result of such a decline?

Your answer:

Answers

1. (c) Oil provides 40%; natural gas, 24%; coal, 23%; nuclear power, 8%; all others (wind, solar, etc.), 5%.

2. (d) 25%, or 20 million barrels a day (one barrel = 42 gallons)

3. (a) 3% or 9 million barrels a day

4. (b) Transportation. Oil provides 97% of all fuel for cars, trucks, buses, planes, trains, and ships.

5. (c) The Persian Gulf has about two-thirds of the world's proven oil reserves.

6. (d) Saudi Arabia has 262.7 billion barrels of known oil reserves. Iraq is second, Iran third, the United Arab Emirates fourth, Kuwait fifth. All are Persian Gulf countries.

7. (a) Four years and three months.

8. (c) According to the pioneering research of M. King Hubbert, a geophysicist who worked for many years at Shell Oil in Houston, the oil output of any given reservoir typically follows a bell-shaped curve. At first, production in an oil field rises rapidly as the most accessible stores are tapped. Eventually, daily output reaches its maximum or peak level and then begins an irreversible decline. Some experts believe that global peak production will occur sometime in the next ten years. Development of such other sources as polar supplies and deep-offshore oil may extend the peak further into the 21st century. But all informed experts agree that "Hubbert's peak," as it has become known, will almost certainly occur during this century. World oil production will then be in an irreversible decline and in time be exhausted. "The crisis will come not when we pump the last drop of oil but rather when the rate at which oil can be pumped out of the ground starts to diminish." (Andrew Goodstein, Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil )

9. The results of such a crisis? Savage competition among nations for oil supplies. Increasing transportation costs. Cutbacks in economic activity. High inflation. Global depression. Reduced food supplies (because agriculture today depends on oil for truck and tractor fuel as well as for pesticides and herbicides), which could lead to widespread starvation.
Sources:

U.S. Department of Energy and its Energy Information Administration

Michael Klare, Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum

A very short history of oil and the U.S., Part I

"Today we are so dependent on oil, and oil is so embedded in our daily doings, that we hardly stop to comprehend its pervasive significance. It is oil that makes possible where we live, how we live, how we commute to work, how we travel....Oil (and natural gas) are the essential components in the fertilizer on which world agriculture depends; oil makes it possible to transport food to the totally non-self-sufficient mega-cities of the world. Oil also provides the plastics and chemicals that are the bricks and mortar of contemporary civilization, a civilization that would collapse if the world's oil wells suddenly went dry." (Daniel Yergin, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power )

During the 1850s in the United States a search was on for a reliable, safe, reasonably cheap illuminant for lamps. Kerosene lamps tended to be smoky and give off an acrid odor. Seeking a replacement in petroleum (or rock oil, as it was then called), a group of investors formed the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company. They hired Edwin Drake to locate a supply. He went to the tiny town of Titusville, Pennsylvania, hired some drillers, and found nothing for over a year. But on August 27, 1859, Drake's workmen-a blacksmith named William Smith and his two sons- dropped their drill into a crevice. The drill slid another six inches, and the men quit for the rest of the weekend. When Smith checked the well the next day, he saw a dark liquid floating on top of the water.

Drake arrived the next day and, using an ordinary hand pump, began to pump up the liquid. He had hit oil. The news spread quickly. Land prices skyrocketed. So did the population of Titusville. Refined as kerosene, Titusville rock oil hit the market and soon was successful. "It is the light of the age....," wrote R. J. Forbes, author of America's first book on oil, "rock oil emits a dainty light; the brightest and yet the cheapest in the world."

The career of this "dainty light" was short. By the end of the 1870s Thomas Alva Edison had invented the heat-resistant, incandescent light bulb. By 1902 18 million light bulbs were in use. Increasingly, kerosene lamps would be found only in rural America, and the oil industry's chief product was no longer a big money-maker.
It didn't take long, though, for oil in the form of gasoline to replace it, for by 1905 the gasoline-powered car had won out over steam and electricity. Automobile ownership was 8,000 in 1900; by 1912 it was 902,000. In ten years the car went from a status symbol and novelty to a growing necessity. The increasing use of fuel oil to power factories, trains, and ships made it a second major market for oil. And with the demand for oil came the need for new oil fields, first in California, then Texas.

For almost 100 years-through World War II-the U.S. was the world's leading oil producer. It supplied its own needs and six of every seven barrels of oil its allies consumed during the war. But American officials were convinced that U.S. oil resources would not be sufficient for the post-war era. They concluded that the Middle East and Saudi Arabia in particular with its huge untapped deposits of oil, would be crucial as a supplier. Americans had already helped to create Aramco, the Saudi state oil company.

Even before the war ended President Franklin Delano Roosevelt met King Ibn Saud on a ship in the Suez Canal. While details of this meeting have never been made fully public, it is clear that the two established the basic arrangement that has existed to this day: the U.S. would guarantee the protection of the Saudi kingdom and the Saudis would provide the U.S. with privileged access to their oil. Roosevelt's successor, President Harry Truman, wrote King Ibn Saud in 1950: "No threat to your Kingdom could occur which would not be a matter of immediate concern to the United States." (The quotations and most of this short history is drawn from Daniel Yergin's The Prize. )

American officials had correctly seen the handwriting on the wall. By the 1950s the U.S. was importing 10 percent of its oil; by the 1960s 18 percent; by the 1970s 45 percent (in 1972 U.S. domestic production entered an irreversible decline); by 1998 over 50 percent; and today just over 56 percent. The portion of imported oil marches ever higher as the U.S.'s own crude oil production drops. Most of our productive fields have already been exploited. Meanwhile, Americans continue to use more and more oil. The 13.5 million barrels per day of oil we used for transportation in 2001 is expected to rise to 20.7 million in 2025. (All statistics are from U.S. Department of Energy.)

In 2003 the United States consumed about 7.3 billion barrels of oil. At the end of that year the U.S. itself had 31 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. If the U.S. were not importing more than half of its oil from abroad and if it had to rely on its own reservoirs and its Strategic Petroleum Reserve with hundreds of millions of barrels of oil in Texas and Louisiana, the country would run out of oil in four years and three months. (John Cassidy, "Pump Dreams," The New Yorker, 10/11/04)

For discussion
1. How aware are students of their use of oil? Divide the class into groups of four with the task of listing products they personally use that include oil as an ingredient. A reporter from each group should report its findings. List them on the board. Are there any uncertainties? How can students verify whether or not a product includes oil? (There are countless such products: ink, crayons, bubble gum, dishwashing liquids, deodorants, eyeglasses, records, tires, heart valves, pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, plastic toys and anything else made of plastic.)

2. Were there any surprises for students in the Literacy Test?

3. What is Hubbert's peak and why is it significant?

4. What is the significance of the World War II meeting between President Roosevelt and King Ibn Saud?

5. Why has the U.S. gone from being the world's leading producer of oil to a nation that imports more than half its oil?

A very short history of oil and the U.S., Part II

On January 23, 1980 President Jimmy Carter declared in his State of Union address: "Let our position be absolutely clear. An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force." Very prominent among those "vital interests" was oil. Carter saw the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan a few weeks earlier as a potential threat to the Gulf region. Another threat was Iran's revolutionary new clerical government led by the Ayatollah Khomeini, some of whose followers had just taken over the American Embassy in Tehran and with it dozens of American hostages.

In the quarter century since then other American presidents have seen some threat arise to Persian Gulf oil:

1987: Iran and Iraq are at war. President Ronald Reagan orders U.S. warships to escort Kuwaiti tankers in the Gulf to protect them from attack by either country and, he says, to demonstrate "U.S. commitment to the flow of oil through the Gulf."

1990: Iraq invades Kuwait, claiming that country's territory as really its own. President George H.W. Bush arranges with Saudi Arabia for the establishment of U.S. bases in that country to defend against the Iraqi attack in Kuwait and the possibility of one aimed at Saudi Arabia itself. He declares, "Our nation now imports nearly half the oil it consumes and could face a major threat to its economic independence....The sovereign independence of Saudi Arabia is of vital interest to the United States."

2003: President George W. Bush orders an invasion of Iraq. The first military objective in Operation Iraqi Freedom is to get control of its oil fields and refineries in the south of Iraq. When American troops reach Baghdad, they immediately seize control of the Iraqi government's Oil Ministry while allowing looting and destruction of other government buildings.
Today American troops guard pipelines carrying Iraqi crude oil to Ceyhan, Turkey's Mediterranean seaport. American troops train forces in Georgia to protect the newly constructed oil pipeline running from Baku to Tblisi to Ceyhan. American ships and planes monitor all Gulf traffic and guard the narrow Strait of Hormuz, the Gulf's outlet to the Indian Ocean.

U.S. military bases in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan were established for use in the war against Afghanistan. But once that war was over the Bush administration received permission from those countries to station American troops there indefinitely. This action angered Russia, which regards the area as its own sphere of influence. But the U.S. has a strong interest in oil deposits in the Caspian Sea basin. It also wants to link up the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline with the flow of oil from Kazakhstan through Turkmenistan.

U.S. concerns about oil drive its military actions beyond the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea area. American troops help defend Colombia's Cano Limon pipeline, which links oil fields in the interior with coastal refineries. American ships and planes patrol oil tanker routes in the Indian Ocean, the South China Sea, and the Western Pacific Ocean.

"Taken together, these developments lead to an inescapable conclusion that the American military is being used more and more for the protection of overseas oil fields and the supply routes that connect them to the United States and its allies. Such endeavors, once largely confined to the Gulf area, are now being extended to unstable oil regions in other parts of the world. Slowly but surely, the U.S. military is being converted into a global oil-protection service." ( Klare, Blood and Oil )

Those "unstable oil regions" include countries on four continents:

Mexico in North America

Venezuela and Colombia in South America

Nigeria and Angola in Africa

Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan in Asia

Angola, Azerbaijan, Colombia, Nigeria, and Russia have all suffered civil wars or ethnic conflicts recently. Kazakhstan, Mexico, and Venezuela have had various forms of political disorder. As Klare points out, "The violence is not simply an unfortunate coincidence....the production of petroleum in otherwise undeveloped countries can led to distortions of the local economy and political system that practically insures instability."

The main reason is that the ruling group typically controls oil revenues. It rewards itself, its friends, and, to assure control of the country, its military and police. The rulers repress others, especially those who protest. Ethnic, political, or religious divisions may play a role in the violence that often follows. But whether the money made from oil is the direct cause of the violence or contributes to it, "the distorting effects of oil production" are a factor. All of which helps to explain why American troops are guarding a pipeline in Colombia, have military bases in central Asia, and monitor oil tanker routes on the oceans of the world.

Access to oil is one important reason why the U.S. government provides corrupt and dictatorial leaders like those in Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, and other Persian Gulf nations with weapons, military training for troops, and diplomatic support. It also helps explain why more than 1,300 American soldiers have died and thousands of others have been wounded in Iraq.

The need for oil is also one important reason why terrorists want to attack the United States. People in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf suffer from lack of basic freedoms, lack of decent work, and repression by their leaders. "Militants direct their anger first at the regime in power, but, because they regard the United States-not unreasonably-as a major factor in the regime's survival, they extend their fury, and their vengeance, to American forces." (Klare, Blood and Oil )

In 1989, just before the Gulf War, Osama bin Laden, a Saudi of a very prominent family, urged King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to use the veterans of the Afghan war against the Soviet Union to defend the Saudi kingdom against a possible Iraqi invasion. King Fahd preferred to use the American army, which from bin Laden's point of view was an army of infidels. He turned into a violent foe of the Saudi government. Since then Al Qaeda has struck again and again at targets inside Saudi Arabia. But now the United States was also his foe. The results were Al Qaeda attacks against Americans in Saudi Arabia, American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the USS Cole in Yemen, and then the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.

It is for such reasons and because of such events that Michael Klare titles his book Blood and Oil. But the U.S. runs on oil. It does not have enough of its own oil to avoid being caught up in the corruption and violence of countries thousands of miles away from its own shores or to avoid being a target for terrorists. How is the United States to solve its energy problems?

For discussion
1. What questions do students have about the reading? How might they be answered?

2. Studying a map of the Persian Gulf region should be useful. What countries are included? What problems in this region are students aware of? (For example, poor U.S. relations with Iran, whose nuclear program is currently under scrutiny; the Al Qaeda threat to Saudi Arabia; ongoing violence in Iraq.) Locate on a world map the other places named in this reading.

3. What evidence is there for Klare's statement that "the U.S. military is being converted into a global oil-protection service"?

4. Why is the U.S. supporting corrupt and dictatorial leaders? Leaving aside any moral judgments about such support, why might it be dangerous to the U.S.?

5. What is the link between oil and terrorism? What, specifically, is the link between oil and the 9/11 attacks?

Reading 3:

What should U.S. energy policy be?

1. President Bush's National Energy Policy

In 2001, just weeks after being sworn in, President Bush appointed Vice President Dick Cheney to lead a major review of U.S. energy policy. His taskforce met with dozens of executives from energy companies and energy trade associations as well as with a much smaller number of labor union, environmental, and consumer group leaders. On May 17, 2001, the Cheney team issued the National Energy Policy, a lengthy, detailed report. In a speech that same day President Bush outlined its major features.

The plan "reduces demand by promoting innovation and technology to make us the world leader in efficiency and conservation....It will underwrite research and development into energy-saving technology. It will require manufacturers to build more energy-efficient appliances."

"The second part of our energy plan will be to expand and diversify our nation's energy supplies. Diversity is important not only for energy security, but also for national security. Over-dependence on any one source of energy, especially a foreign source, leaves us vulnerable to price shocks, supply interruptions, and in the worse case, blackmail."

"Our energy plan also supports the development of new and renewable sources of energy....It proposes incentives to buy new cars that run on alternative fuels....It supports research into fuel cells, a technology of tomorrow that can power a car with hydrogen...."

The plan does not call for any reduction in our use of oil. Instead it proposes to increase consumption by expanding America's oil production. It would do so, for example, by drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, a proposal that was turned down by Congress in 2003 but is now being revived. In the meantime, the president has ordered the opening up of more public lands for oil and natural gas drilling.

The plan recognizes that even with new drilling, the gap between U.S. oil production and and consumption will grow. It calls for closing this gap by increasing America's import of foreign oil from such Latin American countries as Mexico, Venezuela, and Colombia; from Russia; from the Caspian Sea producers (Azerbaijan and Kazkhstan); from West Africa-Nigeria and Angola.

Aware of the possibilities for violence and terrorism in these oil-exporting nations, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a report in 2001, declaring, "The United States must retain the capability to send well-armed and logistically supported forces to critical points around the globe, even in the face of enemy opposition." It identifies oil-producing regions as "critical points" that American troops may have to invade. (Quadrennial Defense Review Report, 9/30/01)

U.S. General Tommy Franks, testifying before the House Armed Services Committee early in 2002, supported these findings: "Sixty-eight percent of the world's proven oil reserves are found in the Gulf Region, and 43 percent of the world's petroleum exports pass through the Strait of Hormuz....Our ability to deploy forces and equipment quickly remains the linchpin for responding to contingencies...."

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham made the link between U.S. energy policy and U.S. military policy very clear later in 2002 when he spoke to the House International Relations Committee: "Energy security is...national security."

2. Warnings and other proposals

All knowledgeable oil experts agree that world oil consumption will inevitably reach Hubbert's Peak and that world oil production will then decline irreversibly. The National Energy Policy does not discuss this expert consensus. It appears to assume that America's scientists have plenty of time in which to devise a new energy system and that in the meantime Americans can continue to consume more oil. Critics regard this view as short-sighted, even dangerous, and emphasize measures that would cut oil consumption and oil imports and invest more in the development of new technologies:

"Four key trends will dominate the future of American energy behavior," writes Michael Klare in Blood for Oil: "an increasing need for imported oil, a pronounced shift toward unstable and unfriendly suppliers in dangerous parts of the world; a greater risk of anti-American or civil violence, and rising competition for what will likely prove a diminishing supply pool. Clearly, the perils of dependency are growing more severe. Yet American leaders are trapped in their same old policy paralysis, proposing feeble steps to reduce our reliance on imported oil even as they acquiesce in our ever-increasing dependency."

During the past ten years global demand for oil has risen by almost a fifth, with the greatest increases coming from India and China, which recently passed Japan to become the world's second-largest consumer of crude oil." (John Cassidy, "Pump Dreams," The New Yorker, 10/11/2004)

"There is no doubt at all that the essence of the Hubbert Peak view is correct. It is possible...that the crisis won't occur until the next decade or even the one after that....We Americans are profligate users of energy. There are many ways in which we could reduce our consumption of fuel without abandoning our comfortable way of life....The real challenge-the challenge we would set for ourselves if we had courageous, visionary leadership-would be to kick the fossil fuel habit as soon as possible ....Unfortunately, our present national and international leadership is reluctant even to acknowledge that there is a problem....Civilization, as we know it will come to an end sometime in this century unless we can find a way to live without fossil fuels." (David Goodstein, Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil)

"Each year that we fail to commit to serious energy research and development or fail to begin slowing the growth of energy demand through fuel efficiency...is another year in which our already unstable energy economy moves so much closer to the point of no return." (Paul Roberts, The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World )

These and other specialists are convinced that sooner rather than later in this century an oil crisis will be upon the world. They call on world leaders to recognize the problem and they suggest a number of steps, both long- and short-range, to deal with it, including the following:

"The only energy sources we have are the sun, which is a nuclear fusion reactor; natural radioactive elements in the earth, which keep the interior of the planet hot; and man-made nuclear reactions in nuclear fission reactors and bombs. Every other form of energy is derived from those sources." Energy from tides is the only small exception. What's needed is serious research into "sophisticated technology that converts sunlight and nuclear energy efficiently into electricity for stationary uses, and produces hydrogen fuel or charges advanced batteries for mobile uses." (Goodstein) (Goodstein also advises international cooperation and investment in such research.)

"Reduce consumption of oil in transportation, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. oil consumption: The key here is light-duty vehicles-automobiles, minivans, SUVs, and pickup trucks....: improvement in the fuel efficiency of existing vehicles; second, the introduction of nonpetroleum fuels (especially ethanol) for existing engines; third, new and improved forms of automobile propulsion, especially hybrid (gas/electric) engines and hydrogen-powered fuel cells; and, fourth, the far more widespread use of mass transit." (Klare)

A tax on gasoline consumption to help finance proposals such as those above. Such a tax would also force car owners to drive less.

Stop highway construction. Build more and speedier rail lines. Improve and expand mass transit.

A much larger investment in renewable sources of energy like wind and solar power, a proposal popular with environmentalists.

There are problems with all proposals. For example: "Power generated from waves, windmills, and solar panels is weak, intermittent, and expensive....When it is cold or dark, solar panels don't produce energy; when it is calm wind turbines don't turn." (Cassidy)

But the biggest energy problems we face are:

Fossil fuels are the major cause of pollution and global warming.

There is a finite amount of oil to be pumped from the reservoirs of the world.

Unless experts on the subject are wrong, Hubbert's Peak will arrive sooner rather than later.

For discussion

1. What questions do students have about the reading? How might they be answered?

2. What proposals in the National Energy Policy make the most sense to you? Why? The least sense? Why? Why do you suppose that the National Energy Policy report does not discuss Hubbert's Peak?

3. How do you think the president and vice president would respond to Michael Klare's "four trends"?

4. Which proposals coming from critics make the most sense to you? Why?
The least? Why?

Suggested Classroom Activities
Discussion Group
Divide the class into groups of four to six students. Half of the groups are to imagine they have the opportunity to interview President Bush about his National Energy Policy; the other half are to interview Michael Klare about his "four trends." In each case, what would be the three most important questions the group would want to ask?

Then ask each group to report its questions to the whole class for examination and discussion. (In this connection, the teacher may find useful "the doubting game" section of Teaching Critical Thinking, which is available on this website.)

A Class Publication

Discussion of the three readings, the questions they raise, and the various proposals presented could lead to further class inquiry into U.S. and world energy problems. Among the subjects might be:

expansion and diversification of U.S. energy supplies, as proposed in the National Energy Policy

the potential for instability, political conflict and violence in major oil-producing regions such as the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea Basin, South America and Western Africa

the extensive use of U.S. troops for the protection of oil resources

U.S. oil-influenced policies toward corrupt and authoritarian governments

consumption of oil and other fossil fuels as the key factor in global warming

such technologies as hydrogen-powered fuel cells

such proposals as oil-drilling in Alaska; a federal gasoline tax; improved fuel efficiency standards for all vehicles, especially SUVs; or the elimination of highway construction

Following such inquiries and as a class project, students could produce a pamphlet, a newspaper, or magazine in which they report what they have learned and make policy recommendations. The publication might include competing, even conflicting, views or, possibly, a class consensus on what needs to be done. It could be distributed for reactions within the school, to the PTA, the school newspaper, the local newspaper, representatives and senators, the U.S. Department of Energy, the president.

A Debate

Organize a debate that could perhaps be the program for a school assembly. The topic:

Resolved: the National Energy Policy is America's best response to its energy problems and needs.

Participants in the debate will need to be more fully informed on the National Energy Policy. See the U.S. Department of Energy at doe.gov for further information. The DOE's Energy Information Administration is also useful ( eia.doe.gov/).

This lesson was written for TeachableMoment.Org, a project of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility. We welcome your comments. Please email them to: lmcclure@morningsidecenter.org

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Americans, says oil expert Paul Roberts, are "energy illiterate" ( Mother Jones interview, 6/8/04). The main purpose of the following materials is to promote energy literacy, especially about our main energy source, oil. The materials begin with a literacy test that students will probably fail but that can help to promote discussion and provoke interest.

# data[].attributes.body
Research Review: Restorative Justice in Schools.