Out of sight, out of mind doesn’t always work, or at least not for very long. When policymakers make decisions that impact the classroom without understanding the impact on their decisions it puts an added burden on the educator. Therefore, ensuring that they are informed about how those decisions are impacting those that they serve can not be overlooked in this full circle, collective effort.
Today, with a reported (NCES) 51% of students in our classroom living in poverty and poverty serving as the number one indicator of trauma (CLASP), equipping and resourcing our educators is a non-negotiable, which means having policies and legislation in place that support this equipping and resourcing is a non-negotiable. A nonnegotiable among policymakers, would mean it becomes non-partisan.
If policymakers, legislators, and their supports are not informed and educated, they risks policies and practices that will only exacerbate the current problem. We have to make room for a better way. We spend millions of dollars in educational research only to perpetuate the systems and policies that contradict its findings and discoveries. We can and we must do better. All of us. It is not difficult to crosswalk our way from unaddressed childhood trauma and resulting mental illness to the violence we are experiencing in our schools. We need to create a plumbline that ensures that the policies being written and implemented can find a straight path to the wellbeing of the child.