Unhelpful Punishment
"So how exactly, then, does poverty lead to dysfunction in the classroom? The prevailing theory is that ACEs cause a psychological reaction—panic, depression, anxiety, and other negative mental health outcomes—that makes kids more likely to misbehave. But a growing body of work shows that kids actually tend to have biological responses to ACEs, too. ACEs aren’t simple sources of stress as we colloquially refer to tough situations. Instead, they are the cause of toxic stress, a more clinical term for what results from a constant, unrelenting deluge of traumatic experiences. When stress hormones like cortisol remain persistently elevated for too long, the size and neural architecture of the brain’s amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex begin to change rapidly, affecting important behaviors like executive functioning, memory, and emotional responses. In other words: Bad behavior may simply be a biological response to the grinding torture of life below the poverty line."
"And the fact remains that a school environment with a disciplinary regime that revolves around punishment is more likely to further intensify these stresses. While the brain remains incredibly plastic in our early years, affording us some level of neurobiological resilience when faced with trying circumstances, a draconian school environment can snuff out any hope for a neurological respite from trouble at home. The kids are not all right, and teachers, stretched thin in their battle to control class clowns and playground bullies, may, unknowingly, be making it worse. The rise of theschool-to-prison pipeline in recent decades may be the most alarming example of the vicious cycle of poverty and dysfunction: Students branded as bad apples by their teacher find their opportunities for a healthy neurobiological environment diminished, resulting in situations that only perpetuate their experience of toxic stress and, in turn, their undesirable behavior."
But it doesn’t have to be this way."
