Abstract
Childhood trauma was found to increase the risk of aggression and disruptive behavior in classrooms. The disruptive behavior risks exposure to the school-to-prison nexus, a result of inequities in zero tolerance and exclusionary policies. The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted the world's learning systems leaving in its wake feelings of anxiety, depression, fear, uncertainty, and hopelessness. This exacerbated the existing trauma experienced by students. Thousands of studies involving hope theory advanced to a science with predictable outcomes and progressively more benefits for dealing with childhood trauma. The eight recommended practical strategies for higher hope include acknowledging that hope takes work, understanding the tenets of hope theory, emphasizing a personal approach to student needs, protecting educators from vicarious trauma, listening more and talking less, developing ambassadors of hope, and creating partnerships of hope focused on positive experiences, effective communication, and resilience to reduce the effects of childhood trauma.
TopChildhood Trauma And The School-To-Prison Nexus
A fair and just criminal justice system must provide due process, protect the rights of the innocent, and provide those protections equally to all people (Hayes, 2020). A well-functioning criminal justice system may be characterized by low or declining crime rates, low recidivism rates, and victims compensated for the wrongs committed against them (Hayes, 2020). This is a balanced system that responds to the needs of the population by protecting, restoring and holding responsible parties accountable, while not erroneously representing itself as perfection for everyone within the system. Ultimately, the criminal justice system is a work in progress that should engage in continuously striving for equity as well as equality for all. When the system is wholly out of balance, a portion of society including those within the criminal justice and educational systems may be disproportionately impacted resulting in negative outcomes for generations to come.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Equality: It means being equal or treated the same.
Hope: It means to desire or want something to be true.
Equity: It means a quality of fairness and taking into account individual needs.
School-to-Prison Pipeline: It is the result of educational system inequities in discipline and exclusionary policies that place some students at a disadvantage ushering them into the criminal justice system.
Trauma: It is broadly defined as any event or series of events that are physically, emotionally, or spiritually harmful or life threatening.
Science of Hope: It is goal-directed thinking focusing on developing clear goals and sustainable momentum to achieve them.
Constructivist Learning Theory: It is an approach to learning based on building from knowledge and previous experiences.
Hopelessness: It means that there is no hope and/or the outcome has already been determined.
Higher Hope: It is the capacity to envision a better future or outcome.