Imagine the potential.
“Our everyday life is as it is. This is normal for us,” a second-grade student told me in Damascus, Syria.
In my work with traumatized children, I have witnessed many different versions of “normality.” Some students left their homes with their parents to create a new home elsewhere. Others have experienced their fathers leaving the country — leaving them, their mothers, and relatives behind. Living with hunger, missing school, and war have also become a part of their “normality.”
“He seems lazy. He can’t motivate himself to do his work or remember anything.”
“She has angry outbursts in class and screams at teachers and students.”
“She always seems to have a stomach ache.”
Trauma and toxic stress exposure can wreak havoc in the classroom.
We are Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel whose children learn together in a bilingual kindergarten in Israel.
For over a year, we have been working hard to establish a warm and cohesive environment for young parents that seek to give their children an alternative and multicultural education. Where we live in Israel, this shared society undertaking is rare- and very challenging.
|
Many aspects of life in the Holy Land can generate toxic stress for children: the blare of missile alarm systems as rockets hurdle overhead, the pang of hunger in the stomach of a child growing up in poverty, or the sense of unease and fear on the street after a terror attack from a Jewish or Palestinian extremist.
These kinds of stressors, or adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), affect the day-to-day life of children and their long-term psychosocial development- and put peace farther out of reach.
When war breaks out, children are the least responsible- but suffer the greatest consequences.
