The New York Times – The Opinion Pages – By DAVID BORNSTEIN – Published: October 30, 2013
In “Schools That Separate the Child From the Trauma” David Bornstein brings into focus the concept of how adverse, or stressful, early childhood experiences (ACE) impact behavior at school. Bornstein makes the point that punishing a child for behavior that is a response to his or her need to regain safety and control (i.e. a stress response) is comparable to punishing a child for having a seizure; it adds to the suffering and makes matters worse. The studies are not referencing exclusively the most significant stressful events such as witnessing domestic violence, sexual trauma etc. It specifies the (sadly) more pervasive experiences: the cited research notes approximately 20% of students have 2 or more ACEs. Misbehavior is not willful defiance when it is a response to toxic stress and to treat it non-discriminately as such compounds the distress for everyone.