I was teaching in a 6th grade classroom one day when I was struck by the way some students were talking about what a dangerous world we live in, with “bad” people lurking everywhere in it. “How many bad people do you know?” I asked. “Oh, not many, really. But there...
“I am really beginning to understand what triggers me,” a 13-year old client recently told me. “I’m starting to recognize when I’m getting agitated. When I do, I use my breathing and my thoughts to manage my emotions, just like you taught.” It’s a blessing and a...
“Knowing just burdens my heart,” said my longtime friend, an elementary school teacher in eastern Oregon. “I have 26 other babies to take care of!” Over the years, I’ve heard many other teachers express the same sense of overwhelm. With all the demands placed on them...
When I first met nine-year-old Barton, he talked nonstop. He explained that he never cried because once when he cried at his last school, even his best friend laughed at him. I could feel the sorrow in him. And the rage. I promised him that I would never laugh at him...
A lot of folks seem to think that all kids have trouble shifting from unstructured summertime to the structure of the new academic year. Some do, of course. But when the first day of school rolled around here, my granddaughter Anna jumped out of bed, excited to get...
