Hidden Dangers to Kids' Learning by Gunzelmann Betsy;

Author:Gunzelmann, Betsy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: R&L Education
Published: 2010-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

Paradoxical Safety Problems that Affect Student Learning

“Listen to your children.” They will tell you, perhaps not directly but by their behavior, whether they feel safe at school. They may often want to stay in bed in the morning, or they’ll have mysterious stomachaches, or they’ll have lots of unexplained absences. Those are “illnesses” that a visit to the doctor cannot cure, but a visit to the school might.

—(John Merrow, 2004)

Safety in the schools involves much more than metal detectors and disaster plans. Although such catastrophe planning is necessary, we are overlooking some less obvious issues that put our children’s everyday safety and education at risk. It appears that some of our current practices designed to ensure student safety are actually increasing safety concerns. As we learned in chapter 3 from Drs. Brazelton and Greenspan (2000), all children require physical protection, safety, and regulation in order to grow, learn, and flourish. The obvious safety issues are clear-cut and usually well addressed in our schools. However, there are less obvious, paradoxical hidden dangers in our schools that impact the social, cognitive and emotional well being of our students.

These hidden dangers are not always immediately apparent, or may be taken for granted as being helpful and therefore are not identified as problematic. However, I believe these risks are contributing to a crisis which includes more school violence, more behavioral and emotional problems, more students unable to attain basic skills, and students now feeling unsafe.

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