The Story of Madam Rose

Madam Rose, neither of her parents were physically abusive, but with an emotionally distant mother and a verbally abusive father, life at her home was tense. She found herself reliving those traumatic memories while reading about the abuse that Edwin and Sharon endured. Neither of her parents had the space to focus on her needs or set healthy boundaries. And it wasn’t until she became a teacher herself, that she understood how this abuse negatively impacted her own learning.

She drifted through her lessons at school, believing she wasn’t a smart student because she struggled with complex ideas. she would forget instructions almost as soon as the teacher said them, but never had the confidence to ask for help. And she would often forget what she’d learned from one lesson to the next. She struggled through high school, and barely scraped through her degree as her depression and anxiety worsened. She had so much difficulty understanding and remembering, She genuinely believed that there was something very wrong with her.

Then she learned how childhood trauma changes the structure of a child’s brain, causing overdevelopment of the amygdala, the so-called “lizard brain” where their fight-flight-freeze-fawn response originates. It also causes underdevelopment of the hippocampus, where higher thinking and memory processing takes place. All information passes through the amygdala before it enters the hippocampus.

For children whose amygdala is overdeveloped and experience high levels of anxiety from trauma, the panic that rises when they’re not sure what to do, triggers their panic response. Consequently, any information being taught is blocked from entering the hippocampus, as the brain tries to deal with what it perceives as a crisis.

She was never stupid. But with her brain almost constantly in panic mode, she never had a chance to be a good student.

The effects of trauma have impacted every aspect of her teaching. She tries to always approach her students with compassion and respect, understanding that their struggles may come from early trauma.

She set clear boundaries in her classroom so they always know what is expected of them, and reinforce these kindly when students cross the line. She worked at maintaining this safe space where they don’t get shouted at or scolded.

While she can’t say she is glad it happened to her, she thinks that having experienced childhood trauma herself helped her to be a better teacher.

She thinks her journey from child to teacher highlights how important having broad training in education is. Teacher’s education should not just be about how they plan or deliver a lesson. they are also, in effect, counsellors to students.

They’re regularly trained to recognise and report signs of trauma and abuse in their students (called safeguarding), but they’re not trained in how to support these students emotionally on a day-to-day basis.

They’re taught classroom management strategies, but they also need to know how to help students control their own behaviour, something which can be difficult for children dealing with trauma.

Education for teachers is improving, but there is still a long way to go.