A former colleague would often say to her Kindergarten charges, “If you don’t know, you won’t grow!” This applies to all of us!

African American students might miss the fullness of holistic, rigorous, rich, nurturing, and well-rounded education at the hands of teachers who do not understand the effects of compound/complex trauma on both ourselves and on our students. African Americans carry this trauma on (not in) their genes (epigenetics) as a result of ancestral slavery. The presence of ancestral trauma alongside the traumas of daily life, such as ACE’s, could indicate the need for teachers of African American students to incorporate trauma sensitivity in planning lessons and in routine classroom interactions with African American students. Trauma manifests itself in many different ways among students.

• When the Storm is Ancestral Trauma …
  Click the link below and listen in as Dr. King both eloquently and clearly explains the roots of how both… Read more: When the Storm is Ancestral Trauma …
• When the Storm is a Learning Disability–or seems to be
  “Years of research point to inequities in education for students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, and students with disabilities.… Read more: When the Storm is a Learning Disability–or seems to be
• When the Storm is Racial Trauma: Expectancy-Value Theory
  Expectancy: Can I do this? How have you convinced your African American students that what you are teaching is meaningful… Read more: When the Storm is Racial Trauma: Expectancy-Value Theory
• When the Storm is Racial Trauma: Self-efficacy
  2. A Sense of Self Efficacy Typically, children are not born with an implicit sense of their own ability. The… Read more: When the Storm is Racial Trauma: Self-efficacy
• When the Storm is Racial Trauma: A Sense of Belonging
  In the era of segregated school systems (and a segregated society), how did African American teachers prepare their students to… Read more: When the Storm is Racial Trauma: A Sense of Belonging